OPEII  AIR. 

mmr  houses 


i*RINCE  T.  WOODS.M,D. 


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'God  lent  His  creatures  light  and  air,  and  waters  open  to  the  sTcies; 
Man  locls  liini  in  a  stifling  lair  and  wonders  whi/  his  hrotJier  dies." 

— Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 
FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


A  Practical  Book  on  Modern  Common   Sense    Poultry   Housing   for 

Beginners  and  Veterans  in  Poultry  Keeping.    What  to  Build 

AND   How  TO   Do   It.        Houses   that    Will   Promote 

Health,  Vigor   and   Vitality    in    Laying    and 

Breeding  Stock, 


BY    PRINCE    T.    WOODS,    M.    D 

managing  editor  AMERICAN  POULTRY  JOURNAL 


published  by 

AMEEICAN  POULTRY  JOURNAL  PUBLISHING  CO- 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY 

AMERICAN  POULTRY  JOURNAL  PUB.  CO. 

ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


FOREWORD 

HIS  BOOK  was  written,  and  the  illustrations  made, 

for   the   purpose    of    supplying   an   ever   increasing 

demand  for  plans  and  building  instructions  of  the 

best  and  most  practical  modern  open-front  open-air, 

or  ''fresh-air  poultry  houses." 

The  fresh-air  or  open-air  idea  is  not  wholly  new. 
We  have  had  a  few  advocates  of  open-air  housing  for  poultry  since 
the  earliest  history  of  domestic  poultry,  but  general  promotion  of 
open-air  or  "fresh-air"  methods  has  only  been  developed  during 
the  past  decade.  The  doctrine  of  fresh  air  has  been  so  successfully 
preached  that  we  now  find  open-front  poultry  buildings  affording 
comfort  for  fowls  all  over  the  American  Continent  in  localities 
where  a  few  years  ago  open-front  houses  were  not  known.  I  firmly 
believe  that  the  general  adoption  of  open-front  houses  for  poultry 
in  cold  and  temperate  climates  and  in  hot  climates  where  long, 
chilling  rains  are  prevalent,  and  of  cage  roosts  for  hot  or  warm 
climates  that  are  not  subject  to  frequent  heavy  rains,  will  result  in 
a  decided  improvement  in  the  health,  vigor  and  vitality  of  domestic 
poultry. 

Building  plans  are  given  for  Woods'  Improved  Open-Air  Poultry 
House,  designed  and  built  by  the  author;  the  Gillette  Open-Air 
House,  designed  bv  George  K.  Gillette,  manager  Sugar  Brook 
Poultry  Farm  Co.,' Central  A'illage,  Conn.;  The  Stoddard  Open- 
Air  Cage  Eoost,  designed  by  H.  H.  Stoddard,  Eiviera,  Texas,  for 
warm  or  hot  dry  climates.  Illustrations  from  photographs  of  the 
Tolman  Fresh-Air  House  are  also  given,  but  plans  and  building 
instructions  are  omitted,  as  such  are  subject  to  the  copyright  of 
the  inventor.  Joseph  Tolman.  of  Pockland,  IMass. 

This  volume  will  have  fulfilled  its  mission  if  it  serves  to  create 
a  greater  interest  in  open-air  poultry  liousing  and  the  building  of 
more  practical  open-air  quarters  throughout  tlie  land,  thus  insuring 
greater  comfort  and  greater  constitutional  vigor  for  the  fowls  and 
better  returns  for  the  poultry  keeper. 

Silver  Lake,  Mass.,  1912.  Pkince  T.  Woods,  M.  D. 

87286 


CONTENTS 


Chapter  I— SUNLIGHT  AND  FRESH  AIR 11 

Importance  of  pure  open  air  both  day  and  night  for  all  domestic 
poultry — Relation  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air  to  health  and  vitality — 
Nature's  best  aid  in  the  prevention  of  diseases. 

Chapter  II— WHY  USE   OPEN-FRONT   HOUSES 17 

A  few  more  reasons  why  you  should  use  open-front  open-air  houses  for 
the  comfort  and  well  being  of  your  fowls,  as  well  as  for  the  better- 
ment of  your  profits. 

Chapter  III— HINTS  AND  HELPS  ON  BUILDING    31 

Tools  and  experience  required — Materials — Suggestions  for  saving  cost, 
floors,  frame,  eaves,  shingles  or  roofing — Portable  or  permanent  build- 
ings— Foundations. 

Chapter  IV— LOCATION  OF  POULTRY  HOUSES 39 

Land — How  to  face  the  building — Relation  to  surrounding  country — 
Prevailing  winds  and  wind  breaks — Continuous  or  colony  buildings — 
Yards. 

Chapter  V— DR.  P.  T.  WOODS'  IMPROVED  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSE.   45 

I'hotographic  building  plans  showing  actual  construction — Dimensions 
of  buildings — Suggestions  for  building  on  colony  or  continuous  plan — - 
Building  instructions  and  list  of  material  required  for  house  to  be 
boarded  up  and  down. 

Chapter  VI— ANOTHER  PLAN  FOR  DR.  WOODS'  HOUSE 59 

Line  drawings  showing  plans  and  detail  of  frame — House  to  be  boarded 
hoi-izontally — List  of  material  required. 

Chapter  VII— THE  GILLETTE  OPEN-AIR  HOUSE 67 

The  house  used  in  International  Laying  Competition — Description, 
plans  and  list  of  material  required. 

Chapter  VIII— H.  II.  STODDARD'S  OPEN-AIR  CAGE  ROOST 75 

A  protected  outdoor  roost  for  fowls  in  warm  or  hot  dry  climates,  where 
no  houses  are  needed — Diagrams  showing  two  types  of  cage  roosts — 
Night  quarters,  which  help  solve  the  stickfast  flea  problem,  and  afford 
greater  comfort  for  fowls  in  tropical  and  semi-tropical  climates — 
Rain  tight  roof  may  be  provided  where  frequent  heavy  rains  prevail. 

Chapter  IX— THE  TOLMAN  HOUSE 81 

Brief  description  and  some  views  of  this  pioneer  among  modern  "fresh- 
air"  houses. 

9 


CHAPTER    I. 

Sunlight  and   Fresh  Air 

jUNLIGHT  and  pure  fresh  op^n  air  are  two  of  the 
greatest  and  best  gifts  which  the  Creator  has  loaned 
to  all  things  on  this  wonderful  earth  of  ours.  Yet, 
because  both  sunlight  and  fresh  air  are  free  and 
easily  obtainable  they  are  seldom  appreciated  at  their 
full  value.  As  a  rule,  and  as  a  people,  we  seldom 
appreciate  anything  until  we  have  paid  dearly  for  it  in  money  or 
experience,  or  both.  Poultry  keepers  everywhere  have  paid  dearly 
through  failure  to  appreciate  the  value  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air. 
Today  we  are  just  beginning  to  realize  the  great  menace  of  "germ 
diseases^'  among  poultry.  What  we  need  is  more  attention  to  pre- 
vention and  less  fussing  with  treatments,  remedies  and  "cures." 
That  great  American  master  mind,  Edison,  tells  us  that:  "The 
unicellular  (one  celled)  forms  of  life  held  undisputed  sway  for 
ages.  Then  gradually  the  multicellular  (many  celled)  forms,  of 
which  man  is  the  liighest  product,  developed,  and  the  unicelhilar 
forms  at  once  sought  their  destruction.  And  so  through  all  the 
ages  the  fight  has  gone  on,  and  today  our  deadliest  enemies  are 
still  the  minute  unicellular  bacteria,  that  do  their  work  unseen, 
and  by  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  world  unheard  of.'' 

Just  bear  that  in  mind  and  remember  that  disease  germs  belong 
to  the  unicellular  army  and  that  some  day  we  are  going  to  eliminate 
them,  and  that,  notwithstanding  the  great  strides  made  by  medicine 
and  the  science  of  reclaiming  diseased  bodies,  'prevention  will  be  the 
means  of  elimination,  and  sunliglit,  combined  with  pure  open  air  all 
the  time,  will  be  two  of  our  most  powerful  agents  in  bringing  the 
battle  to  a  successful  issue. 

That  distinguished  physician  and  talented  author,  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  was  an  ardent  advocate  for  the  more  general 
recognition  of  the  priceless  value  of  fresh  air  and  sunshine.  In 
one  of  his  poems  he  aptly  illustrates  how  blind  man  is  to  the  benefits 
of  these  great  agents  for  maintaining  health  and  vitality.  Dr. 
Holmes  wrote : 

"God  lent  his  creatures  light  and  air,  and  waters  open  to  the  skies; 

Man  locks  him  in  a  stifling  lair  and  wonders  why  his  brother  dies." 

That  is  just  what  many  poultrymen  have  been  doing  for  years, — 

ii 

D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 

North  Carr>lina  Q+a+o  r^^lim,^^ 


12  OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

locking  their  poultry  "in  a  stifling  lair/'  away  from  fresh  air  and 
lacking  in  sunlight;  and  then  they  wonder  why  jDoultiy  disease  is 
common  and  fowls  waste  and  die. 

Nature  never  intended  that  fowls  should  be  housed  at  all,  but  for 
our  own  protection  and  convenience  we  find  it  necessary  to  house 
them  in  some  fashion.  When  fowls  roosted  in  sheltering  evergreen 
trees  entirely  out  of  doors  they  rarely  became  diseased,  but  also 
rarely  laid  eggs  in  winter,  and  they  were  easy  prey  for  all  two  and 
four-legged  thieves.  Closed  houses  were  the  other  extreme  and  the 
winter  egg  yield  was  increased,  but  with  close  housing  came  neglect 
of  ventilation,  or  the  careless  introduction  of  cold  drafts  into  a 
house  full  of  confined  stale  or  foul  air.  and  this  brought  about 
debility,  disease  and  death. 

Fowls  wear  their  outdoor  clothing  the  year  'round  and  change  it 
only  at  moulting  time.  Normally  they  moult  in  time  to  have  a 
heavy  coat  of  warm  plumage  before  severe  cold  weather  sets  in. 
This  coat  is  worn  night  and  day;  there  are  no  outer  garments  to 
be  laid  aside  on  going  indoors  if  the  house  is  warm  and  close.  The 
birds  cannot  open  doors  or  windows  at  will  and  the  attendant  is 
always  at  a  loss  to  know  how  to  operate  windows  and  ventilators 
and  usually  ends  by  leaving  them  closed.  A  closed  house  that  has 
no  heat  is  usually  too  warm  on  a  sunny  day  and  too  cold  and  chill 
on  cloudy  days  or  at  night.  The  cold  is  of  the  damp,  chilling, 
penetrating  sort  that  cuts  to  the  very  marrow.  A  closed  house  with 
heat  is  too  warm  and  close  at  all  times  for  idult  fowls. 

"We  all  know  the  difference  between  working  in  an  open  shed  in 
winter  and  working  in  a  cold,  tightly  closed  building.  The  open 
shed  is  by  far  the  most  comfortal)le.  for  the  cold  is  "drier,"  the  air 
is  purer  and  more  wholesome,  and  there  is  none  of  the  depressing 
effect  of  the  cold  and  chilling,  stale,  damp  air.  For  the  same  rea- 
sons the  open-front  house  is  more  comfortable  for  poultry  than  a 
closed  house. 

Admitting  that  the  open-front  house  is  more  comfortalde  than 
a  closed  one,  some  poultrvmen  are  still  afraid  to  use  it  without 
curtains  for  fear  of  frosted  combs  and  that  storms  will  drive  snow 
and  rain  into  the  Imilding.  These  fears  are  not  sustained  by  the 
facts  shown  in  actual  ex])erience.  Where  cold,  driving  storms  pre- 
vail, if  the  house  is  made  tight  as  to  roof,  rear  and  side  walls,  if 
the  open  front  is  covered  with  -|-inch  mesh  galvanized  wire  net- 
ting, and  if  the  house  is  made  sufficiently  deep  in  proportion  to  the 
expanse  of  open  front,  storms  will  not  drive  in  to  any  troublesome 
extent;  there  will  be  no  danger  of  frosted  combs  under  all  ordinary 
conditions,  and  at  all  times  less  danger  than  in  a  closed  house;  and 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


13 


curtains  in  the  front  of  the  lioiise  or  in  front  of  the  roosts  are  both 
unnecessary  and  undesirable. 

You  are  buikling  an  open-front  house  because  you  wish  to  have 
your  fowls  supplied  with  an  abundance  of  pure,  fresh  air,  day 
and  night?  All  right,  then;  make  it  an  open-front  in  fact,  and 
don't  offer  a  sop  to  your  qualms  and  fears  by  stopping  up  the 
opening  with  cloth  or  burlap.  The  Woods  house  described  in  this 
book  has  been  used  successfullly  and  with  most  satisfactory  results 
in  the  deep  snows  and  cold  of  British  Columbia,  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States,  including  bleak,  cold  and  windy  lake  shore  and 
seashore  sections.     When  j^roperly  constructed  it  has  proved  a  safe 


View  of  north  and  wost  sides  of  Dr.  P.  T.  Woods'  Improved  Open-air 
Poultry  House  as  completed  and  ready  for  painting.  Koof  is  covered  with 
Amatite.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


and  comfortable  poultry  house  and  one  that  is  economical  and 
easy  to  build.  It  provides  for  ample  sunlight  where  it  is  most 
needed,  in  both  front  and  rear  of  tlie  house,  and  it  is  sufficiently 
0])en  in  front  to  afford  an  abundance  of  pure  open  air  dav  and 
night,  with  no  discomfort  to  the  fowls  and  no  dangerous  drafts 
about  the  roosts. 

Sunlight  and  pure  fresh  open  air  are  N'ature's  host  preventives  of 
disease,  destroyers  of  dangerous  germs,  and  promoters  of  health, 
vitality  and  comfort.  Botli  sunlight  and  fresh  air  are  necessary  to 
the  health  and  well  being  of  our  poultry  and  to  obtaining  the  best 


14  OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

returns  from  tliem.  You  have  only  to  properly  try  open-air 
niethods  to  become  convinced. 

Everyone  knows,  or  should  know,  tliat  wholesome  livino-  things 
will  not  thrive  without  sunlight  in  sutlicient  quantity  for  their 
needs.  If  we  lose  sunlight  for  many  days  fungus  growths  and 
other  unwholesome  things  become  active ;  even  the  air  becomes  less 
satisfying  and  is  oppressive,  and  unless  the  blessed  sunlight  puts  in 
an  appearance  soon,  and  for  a  sufficiently  long  interval  to  do  its 
beneficent  work,  we  find  disease  developing  rapidly.  We,  our 
])oultry  and  all  other  living  creatures,  must  have  sunlight  to  supply 
us  with  energy  and  many  useful  elements  which  the  light  brings  to 
us.  Everyone  knows,  too,  or  should  know,  that  mankind  is  better 
for  much  open  air  living.  The  same  is  true  of  our  poultry  to  even 
a  greater  extent.  They  need  an  abundance  of  pure,  fresh,  open 
air  to  breathe  day  and  night,  and  particularly  at  night.  The 
fowl's  body  has  a  normal  temperature  considerably  higher  than 
that  of  a  human  being.  In  ]unportion  to  its  size  the  fowl  undoubt- 
edly consumes  a  consideraljly  greater  amount  of  the  life-giving 
elements  of  breathing  air.  Xature  Iniilt  fowls  to  live  in  tlie  open 
and  they  require  pure  open  air  for  breathing  purposes  at  all  times. 

Eowls  go  to  bed  earlv.  They  go  to  roost  at  dusk  and  do  not  leave 
the  roost  until  daylight  in  the  morning.  They  sleep  longer  hours 
than  the  average  human  being  in  summer  and  much  longer  hours 
in  winter.  Plan's  need  of  pure  breathing  air  during  sleep  is 
greater  than  during  his  waking  hours  and  the  fowl's  need  is  even 
greater. 

Sleep  is  a  recuperative  process,  it  is  Xature's  method  of  helping 
to  restore  the  proper  balance  of  the  body.  During  sleep  the  up- 
liuilding  processes  within  the  body  are  considerablv  in  excess  of  the 
Ineaking  down  processes,  while  during  waking  hours  the  conditions 
are  reversed.  Sleep  and  the  restoration  of  bodily  balance  or  build- 
ing up  of  broken  down  tissues  is  necessary  to  life  and  health. 
Oxygen  is  necessary  for  the  building  up  processes,  and  this  oxygen 
is  to  be  obtained  from  pure,  fresh,  open  air.  The  foul,  stale  air 
of  a  closed  house  does  not  contain  sufficient  oxygen  to  provide  for 
the  normal  upbuilding  and  it  does  contain  poisonous  exhalations 
that  are  dangerous  to  life  and  health.  The  open-front  _  open-air 
house  when  properly  built  insures  an  abundance  of  life-giving  fresh 
air  at  night,  when  it  is  most  needed. 

The  total  intake  and  outgo  of  oxygen  for  the  twenty-four-hour 
day  has  not  been  figured  out  for  fowls,  but  it  has  been  deteruiined 
approximatelv  for  human  beings.  Fowls  require  more  oxygen  in 
proportion  to  their  size  than  do  human  beings,  but  the  figures 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


15 


which  have  been  given  will  serve  for  purposes  of  illustration.  Dur- 
ing the  twenty-four  hours  the  average  luunan  body  takes  in  during 
the  twelve  hours  of  daylight  only  about  40  per  cent  of  the  total 
amount  of  oxygen  required  and  gives  oif  about  60  per  cent  of 
carbon  dioxide.  During  the  twelve  hours  of  night,  mainly  during 
slee]i,  some  GO  per  cent  oxygen  is  taken  in  and  only  al)0ut  40  per 
cent  carbon  dioxide  is  given  off.     From  this  it  will  be  seen  tluit  the 


Interior  view  of  F.  M.  Peasley's  fresh-air  house  for  2,000  layers,  Cheshire, 
Conn.  Shows  arrangement  of  track  for  feed  ear,  hoppers,  roosts, 
partitions,  etc.     (See  page  64.) 

body  during  the  day  gives  up  or  gets  rid  of  from  20  to  40  per  cent 
more  oxygen  than  it  takes  in,  and  during  the  night  it  takes  in  from 
20  to  40  per  cent  more  than  it  gives  up.  It  may  be  urged  that 
the  amount  of  carbon  dioxide  (poisonous  gas)  given  off  at  night 
is  considerably  less  than  by  day,  but  l^ear  in  mind  that  the  space 
occupied  by  a  sleeping  fowl  at  night  is  very  much  less  than  the 
space  which  it  occupies  through  tlie  day  and  that  at  night  it  remains 
in  one  place.  Unless  the  fowl  at  night  is  abundantly  supplied  w^ith 
pure,  fresh  breathing  air,  it  has  less  chance  of  obtaining  the  neces- 


16  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

sary  oxygen  than  it  has  during  tlie  day  and  there  is  more  danger 
of  breathing  over  and  over  again  the  foul  gases  exhaled. 

The  reader  may  think  that  for  a  book  on  houses  1  have  given 
considerable  space  to  this  chapter  on  sunlight  and  fresh  air,  but  if 
it  will  serve  to  promote  a  more  general  use  of  actual  open-front 
poultry  buildings  it  will  prove  sgace  well  spent.  I  have  had  ten 
years'  experience  with  open-front  houses  of  various  types,  and  prior 
to  that  had  for  many  years  used  closed  houses,  curtain  front  houses 
and  open  sheds,  as  well  as  allowing  some  fowl  to  roost  in  the  trees. 
From  my  own  experience  and  from  observing  the  results  obtained 
by  others  and  from  reports  of  open-front  house  users  all  over  the 
American  Continent,  I  am  convinced  that  the  properly  constructed 
open-front  house  is  the  only  sane  and  sensible  method  of  housing 
poultry  in  cold  and  temperate  climates,  and  the  entirely  open, 
roofed,  shelter  or  the  cage  roost  is  most  desirable  for  warm  and  hot 
climates. 

The  importance  of  abundant  sunlight  and  fresh  air  needs  no 
further  comment  here.  If  poultry  keepers  everywhere  would 
abandon  the  old  type  of  closed  poultry  house  and  adopt  a  well 
constructed  open-front  house,  or  such  form  of  roost,  shelter  or 
cage  roost  as  is  best  adapted  to  their  location  and  climate,  and 
would  breed  and  feed  for  health,  there  would  be  less  poultry  dis- 
ease each  year  and  in  the  years  to  come  it  might  be  eliminated. 
Open-air  housing  of  laying  and  breeding  stock  and  common-sense 
breeding  and  feeding  for  health  will  do  more  towards  ol)taiuing 
healthy  poultry,  fertile,  hatehable  eggs,  and  strong,  sturdy  chicks 
than  all  the  systems,  treatments  and  remedies  ever  invented. 

Give  the  open-front  house,  with  plenty  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air, 
a  fair  trial,  Mr.  Doubter,  and  you,  like  others  who  came  to  scoff, 
will  remain  to  pray. 


CHAPTER   II. 

Why  Use   Open-front  Houses 


OW  AXD  THEX  someone  asks  the  question :  "Why 
use  open-front  houses?*'  That  person  has  not  used 
a  fresh-air  house  and  is  either  in  doubt  as  to  the 
desirability  of  such  poultry  quarters  or  is  afraid  to 
use  an  open-front  building  for  poultry,  fearing 
danger  from  cold  and  exposure.  He  only  needs  to 
give  the  right  sort  of  an  open-air  house  a  good,  fair  trial  to  become 
convinced  that  the  danger  is  all  imaginary. 

To  be  successful  with  poultry  it  is  necessary  to  keep  the  fowls 
comfortaljle  and  they  find  comfort,  real  comfort,  in  a  well  planned 
house  of  the  open-front  type.  The  terms  open-air  and  fresh-air 
house  ap])ly  to  tlie  same  type  of  building,  i.  e.,  one  with  a  partly 
or  entirely  open  south  front. 

An  open-front  house  is  not  necessarily  a  very  cold  house;  it  is 
always  warmer  than  the  outdoor  temperature  and  it  is  actually 
more  comfortable  than  a  similar  closed  building  would  be.  A  cold 
house,  however,  provided  the  south  front  is  kept  open,  is  no  draw- 
back to  the  production  of  an  abundance  of  eggs  in  winter.  Fowls 
actually  lay  better  in  open-front  quarters  in  winter  than  they  do  in 
closed  houses,  and  in  climates  where  the  temperature  drops  to  20 
and  even  40  degrees  below  zero. 

Connecticut  Agricultural  College  successfully  wintered  White 
Leghorns  in  tents  and  had  a  good  egg  yield,  with  no  frozen  combs 
and  no  sickness.  Both  Leghorns  and  S.  C.  Black  Minorcas  have 
been  wintered  for  several  years  in  Woods'  open-air  house  in  cold 
locations  where  temperature  registered  10  below  frequently,  and 
20  to  30  below  zero  several  times,  and  excellent  health,  fine  egg 
yield  and  no  frosted  combs  was  the  report  sent  us.  High  winds 
and  driving  storms  did  not  cause  fowls  any  inconveniences  or  any 
check  in  egg  production. 

In  1908  Editor  :\riller  Purvis  said  in  Xovember  Poultry:  "The 
open-front  poultry  house  is  making  friends  all  the  time.  It  keeps 
the  fowls  healthy,  is  cheap  and  more  comfortable  than  the  old- 
style  house."  There's  the  reason — it  is  "more  comfortable/'  Any- 
thing that  "keeps  the  fowls  healthy'^  and  affords  them  more  com- 
fort is  sure  to  bring  about  better  results  and  greater  profits. 

17 


18  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

Prof.  James  E.  I J  ice,  of  Cornell  Agricultural  College,  in  a  lec- 
ture given  several  years  ago  said:  "The  open-air  house  has  become 
a  fixture  in  modern  poultry  husbandry.  Without  pure  air  in  a 
poultry  house  a  poultrvman  cannot  stay  long  in  the  business,  unless 
he  has  a  large  l)ank  account  to  foot  the  l)ills.  Hens  will  do  far 
better  in  cold  pure  air  than  they  will  in  warm  impure  air;  fresh 
air  is  of  more  importance  than  warmth,  if  we  cannot  have  both." 

Now,  let's  consider  a  few  more  reasons  why  you  should  use  open- 
front  open-air  houses  for  the  comfort  and  well  being  of  your  fowls 
and  to  the  betterment  of  your  profits : 

In  the  first  place,  an  open-front  of  the  best  modern  type  will 
cost  you  less  to  build  than  a  closed  house  that  will  house  the  same 
number  of  birds.  It  will  be  a  better  house  and  more  attractive 
to  look  at.  It  should  not  cost  _you  over  $1  per  bird  housed,  at  first 
cost,  and  it  ought  to  last  at  least  fifteen  years  without  repairs 
other  than  touching  up  the  paint  about  the  windows. 

You  will  have  more  healthy  fowls  and  enjoy  comparative  free- 
dom from  all  serious  poultry  ailments,  and  you  will  be  al)le  to  keep 
more  fowls  on  the  same  land. 

Cooped  up  air,  dust  laden  air,  foul  breathed  out  air,  is  every- 
where in  closed  poultry  coops  and  buildings,  and  it  is  always  bad. 
Pure  open  air,  circulating  freely  and  com])aratively  dust  free,  can 
always  be  had  in  an  open-front  house,  and  it  is  always  only  good. 
Have  an  open-front  house  and  so  sup|)]y  your  fowls  with  always 
good  air  at  all  times. 

You  can  keep  150  layers  that  will  average  sLx  pounds  each  in 
an  open-front  house  20x20  ft.  and  get  good  results  in  health  and 
egg  yield.  You  can  do  it;  it  has  been  and  is  being  done,  l)ut  I 
prefer  not  over  100  layers  in  a  house  of  that  size.  To  house  the 
same  number  in  a  closed  l)uilding  you  would  rcfjuire  double  the 
floor  space  and  would  in  all  probalulity  have  much  less  satisfac- 
tory results  and  more  worry  and   laboi-. 

Contrary  to  the  belief  of  some  open-front  poultry  house  users, 
large  flocks  are  not  necessary  to  the  successful  use  of  an  open-front 
house.  You  don't  have  to  fill  the  house  up  with  birds  to  keep 
them  warm;  that  isn't  the  idea  at  all.  You  can  keep  larger  flocks 
in  open-front  houses  than  you  can  in  closed  houses  of  the  same 
size  and  get  better  results.  There  is  less  danger  from  crowding 
fowls  in  an  open-air  house.  If,  for  any  reason,  you  wish  to  carry 
a  small  flock  in  a  good  sized  open-air  house  you  can  do  so  with 
perfect  safety  and  with  good  results.  For  two  winters,  both  severe 
ones,  I  carried  a  little  flock  of  special  mating  cock  and  four 
females  in  an  open-front  house  8x14  ft.  and  apparently  they  were 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


19 


quite  as  comfortable  as  a  flock  of  thirty  birds  in  a  house  of  same 
type  and  size,  close  by. 

House  sweating  and  dampness  causes  no  trouble  in  properly 
built  fresh-air  houses.  When  built  of  boards  covered  with  shingles, 
or  with  some  of  the  graveled  felt  roofings,  I  have  always  found  the 
houses  dry  and  free  from  frosting.  I  have  had  several  complaints 
of  dampness  and  house  sweating  in  open-front  houses  wliere  the 
boards  were  covered  with  heavy,  smooth,  hard-finish  roofing.    This 


Experimental  Woods'  Open-air  House  built  in  1908  at  Topsfield,  Mass. 
This  house  has  a  double  board  floor  and  is  set  on  posts  over  which  large 
pans  have  been  inverted  to  make  the  house  rat  proof.  View  shows  south 
front  and  west  side.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


Hvas  probably  the  fault  of  the  roofing  used.  In  one  other  case  the 
house  was  too  low  studded  and  roof  boards  were  too  close  to  the 
heads  of  the  roosting  fowls.  An  open-front  house  should  have 
plenty  of  head  room  about  the  roosts. 

Open-front  open-air  houses  are  actually  open  houses.     The  open 
portion  of  the  south  front  sfays  open  night  and  day  the  year 


20  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

'round.  Thoro  arc  no  ciirtaiiis  of  any  kind.  The  only  protection 
given  to  the  opening  in  the  south  front  is  the  overhang  of  the 
eaves  and  the  screen  of  ]-inch  niesli  galvanized  wire  netting.  The 
screen  is  used  over  the  opening  to  confine  the  fowls  and  to  keep 
the  small  hirds  like  sparrows  out  of  the  house.  Being  fine  mesh 
screen  it  serves  as  sufficient  protection  from  driving  wind,  rain 
and  snow  storms,  and  it  is  really  surprising  how  little  of  a  storm 
gets  through  the  wire. 

During  the  fall  of  1911  we  had  one  of  the  worst  wind  and  rain 
storms  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  has  experienced  for  many 
years.  It  blew  a  howling  gale  from  the  south  and  west  right  off 
the  pond  and  lake,  damaged  trees,  and  drove  loose  boards  around 
like  bits  of  paper,  the  wind  blew  the  torrents  of  rain  on  a  slant 
that  was  but  little  more  than  the  horizontal  and  it  literally  washed 
the  paint  from  the  south  front  of  the  new  barn.  In  spite  of 
rul)ber  clothing  I  was  soaked  to  the  skin  going  from  my  dwelling 
to  the  open-front  poultry  house,  less  than  100  yards  away.  Inside 
of  the  house,  except  for  the  noise  of  the  wind  and  rain  outside, 
one  would  not  be  aware  of  the  fury  of  the  storm.  The  wind  could 
iiot  be  felt  at  all  in  the  house  at  a  distance  of  four  feet  from  the 
open  front.  The  fowls  were  comfortable  and  happy.  A  little 
water  came  in  through  the  wire  screen,  but  only  a  very  little,  and 
less  than  one  yard  of  the  floor  immediately  back  of  the  wire  front 
screen  received  a  wetting.  This  house  is  the  one  shown  in  the 
illustrations  from  photographs  showing  construction  of  the  "Woods 
House. 

It  is  less  trouble  to  operate  an  open-front  house  than  any  other 
kind  of  poultry  building.  Being  always  open,  there  is  no  ventila- 
tion or  ventilators,  or  opening  and  closing  of  windows  to  worry 
al)0ut.  You  can  go  to  bed  and  sleep  through  hard  storms  and 
cold  nights  with  no  occasion  for  worry  about  the  fowls  or  whether 
you  should  have  left  the  windows  or  ventilators  open  or  shut. 

A  dozen  years  ago  there  w^ere  very  few  open-front  houses  for 
poultry.  A  few  poultrymen  scattered  over  this  great  country  have 
used  open- front  sheds  and  partly  open  poultry  houses  for  man}^ 
years,  but  such  houses  were  not  in  anything  like  general  use. 
Most  "authorities''  used  and  recommended  the  closed  tvpe  of  poul- 
try house.  Within  the  past  twelve  years  open-front  houses  have 
been  gaining  enthusiastic  admirers  and  advocates  everywhere.  x\ll 
over  the  country  you  will  find  open-front  open-air  poultry  quar- 
ters, of  one  type  or  another,  that  are  giving  most  satisfactory 
results. 

The  open- front  house  has  won   its  place  on  merit  and  it  will 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  21 

continue  to  hold  it  on  merit.  The  merit  of  being  the  most  sane, 
sensible  and  satisfactory  method  of  housing  domestic  poultry.  The 
experience  of  hundreds  of  users  in  extremely  cold,  temperate  and 
warm  climates,  has  demonstrated  beyond  question  that  open-front 
housing  for  poultry  insures  constitutional  vigor,  better  health, 
better  egg  yield,  better  feriilitij,  more  hatchable  eggs,  more  and 
better  chicks,  greater  vitality  and  better  growth  in  young  slock, 
less  danger  from  disease  germs  and  comparative  freedom  from 
disease,  therefore  assuring  greater  profits. 

Such  houses  are  easy  to  care  for  and  therefore  make  a  saving  in 
labor.  For  warm  weather  use  the  modern  open-front  house  can 
be  made  still  more  open,  affording  sufficiently  cool  and  comfortable 
quarters  for  the  hot  season.  It  is  a  house  that  is  sufficiently  warm 
in  winter  and  cool  enough  in  summer. 

Tests  made  with  an  open-front  house,  10x16  ft.,  in  cold  and 
bleak  Saratoga  County,  New  York,  with  S.  C.  Minorcas,  gave 
most  satisfactory  results.  With  only  fifteen  fowls  housed  the  inside 
temperature  in  center  of  house  half-wav  between  floor  and  roof 
stood  at  zero  when  temperature  outside  of  the  house  registered  15 
degrees  below  zero. 

Progressive  physicians  all  over  the  world  are  using  open-air 
treatment  as  a  means  of  preventing  disease  and  as  an  aid  in  the 
cure  of  disease.  Progressive  poultrymen  are  learning  that  open- 
air  housing  will  do  the  same  for  poultry,  will  help  us  to  more  and 
better  poultry  and  to  better  returns  and  Ijetter  profits. 

Open-air  housing  has  never  yet  killed  a  fowl,  it  has  not  injured 
one,  it  has  heli)ed  and  benefited  every  fowl  properly  cared  for  under 
open-air  methods,  its  has  made  thousands  of  fowls  more  comfort- 
able and  has  helped  to  prevent,  check  and  cure  disease  in  many 
forms.  Why  not  make  your  flocks  comfortable  when  it  means  so 
much  and  costs  so  little? 

Don't  be  afraid  of  fresh  air.  Fowls  don't  "catch  cold"  from 
being  allowed  an  al)undance  of  pure,  fresh,  open  air  under  condi- 
tions Avhich  are  comfortal)le.  They  "catch  cold"  from  breatbing 
confined  impure  air  which  has  been  stirred  up  by  thin  cold  drafts 
while  the  fowls  are  subjected  to  the  discomfort  of  chilling  and 
deadly,  closed-in,  damp,  impure  air. 

While  it  is  always  advisable  to  start  young  birds  in  open-front 
quarters  and  to  keep  them  in  such,  there  is  actually  less  danger  in 
transferring  birds  from  a  closed  house  to  an  open-front  one  in  cold 
weather  than  there  is  in  changing  them  from  one  closed  house  to 
another  or  from  an  open-front  house  to  a  closed  one.  I  have,  on 
several  occasions,  taken  sick  fowls  from  a  closed  house  in  winter 


22 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


"Nvitli  tlie  teiHpc  rat  lire  ranging  from  zero  to  as  ]ow  as  40  degreos  be- 
low zero  F.,  and  transferred  tlieni  to  small  entirely  open-front  coops 
located  on  snow-covered  ground,  and  have  had  all  that  were  fit  to 
live  make  a  good  recovery.  This  with  no  other  treatment  than 
open-air  housing  and  liberal  feeding.  A  few  of  the  weakest  will 
succumb  and  die  under  this  treatment,  but  the  losses  have  always 
been  surprisingly  few.  Don't  be  afraid  of  fresh  air.  It  is  far 
better  to  lose  a  few  sick  or  debilitated  fowls  from  exposure  (they 
would  undoubtedly  die  anvwav  and  are  alwavs  a  menace  to  the 


Another  view  of  Experimental  Woods'  Open-air  House  showing  east  side 
and  south  front.      (Photo  by  Dr.   Woods.) 


flock)   than  to  run  the  risk  of  losing  the  majority  or  all   of  the 
flock  through  allowing  them  to  remain  in  closed  quarters. 

Some  fanciers  ask:  "Is  it  safe  to  take  fowls  from  the  sliow 
room  and  ])lace  tliciii  in  open-air  quarters?"  I  believe  that  it  is 
much  safer  than  to  return  them  to  a  closed  house.  There  is  always 
risk  in  washing  and  in  shipping  and  exhibiting  birds.  To  my 
mind  it  is  safer  to  take  a  fowl  from  the  shipping  coop  and  place  it 
in  good  open-air  quarters  than  it  is  to  take  tlie  chance  of  cooping 
it  in  closed  house  or  coop,  ^fost  of  the  damage  is  done  during 
transportation  and  in  the  show  room.  Fowls  when  washed  must,  of 
course,  be  dried  in  a  well  aired,  warm  room  and  should  go  from  there 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  23 

direct  into  tlio  sliippiii,!;-  coop.  I  would  jiot  jdace  a  recently  washed 
bird  in  open-front  ([iiartci-s  nntil  it  Jiad  had  ample  opportunity  to 
dry  off  thoroughly  and  to  get  over  the  effects  of  its  bath.  It  is 
simply  a  matter  of  common  sense  judgment. 

Can  small  chicks  be  kept  in  open-front  (quarters?  They  can 
under  the  right  conditions.  Place  suitable  brooders  in  any  open- 
front  colony  house  in  winter  and  run  them  as  you  would  out  of 
doors  in  the  spring.  Keep  the  little  chicks  comfortalde  and  as 
soon  as  they  are  sufficiently  well  trained  let  them  have  the  run  of 
the  house.  Wean  gradually  and  when  too  big  for  the  brooder  take 
it  away  and  let  them  continue  to  occupy  the  house. 

A  successful  Connecticut  poultryman  raises  Leghorn  chicks  in 
cheap,  home-made,  lamp-heated,  roofless  box  brooders;  operated  in 
cold  weather  in  open-front  sheds.  It  is  sometimes  so  cold  that  it 
takes  three  lamps  to  keep  the  hover  space  warm  enough,  but  the 
chicks  are  kept  comfortable  and  thrive.  He  abandoned  an  unsatis- 
factory closed  brooder  house  to  use  this  plan,  which  has  proved 
successful.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  to  such  extremes,  but  if  he 
can  raise  strong  chicks  in  such  exposed  hovers  you  need  have  no 
fear  about  growing  them  in  a  well  constructed  open-front  house, 
provided  you  use  a  sensible  lirooder  that  admits  an  abundance  of 
pure  breathing  air. 

In  1910  Trof.  W.  E.  Graham,  Ontario  Agricultural  College, 
Guelph,  Canada,  said  in  an  interview  that  he  considered  that: 
"To  date  the  single-boarded,  open-front  house  has  proved  superior 
for  getting  eggs  in  winter  and  keeping  the  fowls  in  a  healthy  state.'' 
Prof.  Pice,  of  Cornell,  in  the  same  year,  said :  "Fresh  air  is  one 
of  the  most  important  assets  which  we  have  for  building  up  and 
maintaining  lioclily  vigor.  To  get  the  best  results  the  birds  sh.ould 
be  housed  in  open-air  buildings." 

Dinsmore  &  Co.,  Kramer,  Indiana,  use  fresh-air  houses,  find 
them  entirely  satisfactory  and  a  sick  fowl  is  a  rare  thing  on  their 
plant.    They  favor  the  Woods  type  of  o]-)en-front  house. 

U.  E.  Fishel,  Hope,  Indiana,  recommends  open-front  houses, 
devotes  several  pages  in  his  latest  catalogue  to  a  description  of  the 
improved  Woods  liouse  and  savs:  "I  would  suggest  the  building 
of  Woods'  Improved  Open-front  Poultry  House,  which  I  consider 
the  best  open-front  poultry  house  built  today." 

A  circular  letter  was  sent  out  to  representative  poultrymen  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  asking  Avhat  type  of  poultrv  house  they 
preferred  for  best  results — open-front  or  closed  house.  The  majority 
Avere  in  favor  of  one  or  another  type  of  open-front  house  and  one 
breeder  who  is  located   where   the  temperature   sometimes   drops 


24  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

to  40  degrees  below  zero  in  winter,  said:  ^'Woods'  open-air  colony 
poultry  houses.  We  want  fresh  air  niglit  and  day  to  insure  health. 
This  is  a  cold  country  in  winter.'' 

Bulletin  Xo.  183,  Maryland  Agricultural  Experiment  Station, 
says : 

"A  few  years  ago  the  open-front  poultry  house  was  practically 
unknown.  The  tendency  at  that  time  was  to  construct  houses  that 
were  very  tight,  and  ventilated  by  the  opening  of  windows,  and  in 
many  instances  by  means  of  flues  and  cupolas.  This  type  of  house 
as  a  rule  was  more  or  less  damp,  p.nd  it  did  not  take  manv  vears  for 
progressive  men  to  realize  that  damp  houses  meant  cold  houses  and 
an  abundance  of  disease.  The  result  has  been  a  gradual  increase 
of  the  amount  of  fresh  air  in  tlie  house,  and  less  attention  given 
to  warmth,  until  today  we  have  what  is  known  as  the  open  or  cloth 
front  house.  One  can  still  find,  however,  many  types  of  poultry 
houses,  but  the  open-front  house  is  fast  becoming  the  standard  for 
every  climate. 

''The  beneficial  effects  of  a  dry  house  with  an  abundance  of 
fresh  air,  has  been  very  forcibly  demonstrated  by  several  Experi- 
ment Stations.  *  *  *  The  open-front  house  can  be  modified  to 
meet  a  wide  range  of  climate.     *     *     * 

"In  difi'erent  parts  of  the  state  where  new  buildings  are  being 
erected,  the  open-front  or  fresh-air  idea  was  in  evidence.  There  is 
little  doubt  but  that  the  open-front  house  is  one  big  step  toward 
putting  the  poultry  industry  on  a  firmer  basis,  and  for  houses  of 
all  sizes  this  type  of  house  is  strongly  recommended.*' 

Manager  A."  Carr,  of  the  :\Iilton  Poultry  Station,  New  Zealand, 
recommends  the  open-air  system  of  housing  and  savs : 

"Owing  to  the  continued  increasing  demand  for  breeding  stock 
and  sittings  of  eggs.  I  have  l)een  obliged  to  further  increase  the 
accommodation  by  altering  a  number  of  the  original  houses  and 
adding  tlie  new  type  of  cheap  ^open-air  houses.'  These  have  proved 
a  complete  success  in  every  way  and  prove  beyond  all  question  that 
tlie  old  style  close  and  expensive  house  is  quite  unnecessary  for  the 
keeping  of  poultry  for  profit." 

In  the  1909  report  of  the  Poultrv  Division  of  the  Xew  Zealand 
Department  of  Agriculture  is  tlie  following  : 

"Experiments  carried  out  at  the  ^Milton  Station  in  the  open-air 
system  of  housing  have  proved  very  satisfactor\%  and  the  system 
can  now  be  recommended  to  poultry  raisers  in  any  part  of  the 
Dominion,  no  matter  how  severe  the  climate." 

A  successful  user  of  open-front  poultry  houses  refers  to  the  old- 
fashioned  type  of  closed  house  as  a  "roup  factory." 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  25 

H.  H.  Stoddard  in  The  Fouliry  ^Yorld  for  September,  1876, 
said : 

"We  cannot  be  over-mindful  of  the  facts  that  clear  fresh  air 
continuously,  pure  clean  water  for  drink,  and  untainted  food  and 
quarters,  are  highly  promotive  of  the  health  of  poultry,  and  at 
all  seasons.  But  we  are  constrained  again  to  affirm  that  of  all 
these,  pure  air  for  them  to  breathe  is  of  the  first  and  last  import- 
ance towards  their  continuous  health  and  thrift." 

In  1910,  in  a  personal  letter  to  the  author,  H.  H.  Stoddard 
wrote : 

"Shake,  Doctor  !  You  are  in  it !  I  don't  know  whether  you  stop 
to  pat  yourself  on  the  back  very  much  or  not,  but  it  is  fair  to 
presume  that  it  is  pleasant  for  you  to  reflect  that  now,  and  for 
ages,  thousands  and  millions  and  billions  of  pairs  of  lungs  w^ill 
push  and  pull  a  volume  of  fresh  air,  minus  carbon  dioxide,  that 
will  equal  a  volume  of  the  atmosphere  over  an  empire,  and  a  wave 
of  good  hearty  animal  happiness  will  roll,  like  the  British  drumbeat 
encircling  the  earth  and  ceasing  not  so  long  as  there  is  civilization 
and  the  keeping  of  domestic  animals ! 

"I  write  with  some  ardor  on  this  fresh  air  biz  for  reasons  I  will 
proceed  to  set  down.  For  fifteen  years  or  more  I  read  nothing  on 
poultry.  Lost  the  run  of  things  entirely.  Then  read  E.  P.  J.  files 
through  1909.  Learned  more  of  importance,  I  can  truthfully  say, 
from  your  pen  than  from  all  my  previous  reading  of  poultry 
books  and  papers  put  together. 

"My  interest  in  the  anti-tuberculosis  crusade,  and  the  wonderful 
vigor  imparted  by  the  open  windows  o'nights  practice  to  well  peo- 
ple, made  me  read  carefully  your  statements.  I  determined  to 
open  two  big  doors  to  my  poultry  house.  Kow,  here  is  an  import- 
ant tiling.  The  oldest  residents  (about  fifty  years  is  the  limit  since 
exclusive  Pawnee  occupation  here  in  this  part  of  Xebraska  have 
never  experienced  so  severe  a  winter.  For  six  weeks  the  cold  had 
no  let-up.  For  twelve  mornings  in  succession,  by  a  very  strange 
nniformity,  my  thermometer  said  5  degrees  below,  almost  to  a 
hair.  Previous  to  that,  and  afterwards,  it  was  every  morning 
from  zero  to  18  degrees  below,  in  the  whole  six  weeks  period. 
My  house  doors  stood  open  on  the  east  and  the  perches  were  not 
way  back  from  the  opening.  House,  a  barn  really,  so  wide,  long 
and  high  that  animal  heat  couldn't  warm  it  to  amount  to  anything. 

"I  expected  frozen  combs  would  compel  me  to  stop  the  experi- 
ment. Had  very  large,  freezable  combs.  None  froze !  Birds 
very  bright,  active  and  healthy.  Water  left  by  mistake  froze  six 
inches  in  one  night. 


'O 


D,  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 


kt^.^.l_     ^s  ^ 


26  OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

"A  iiei»,^lilM)r  witli  new  l)ric'k  ])oiiltrv  lioiise  witli  stove  ami  fire 
night  and  day.  A\'rv  eiitliiisiastie.  Xo  end  of  care.  Fed  fresh 
meat  some,  and  variety  of  good  things.    Sat  up  late  to  tend  fire. 

^'Educated,  very  intelligent  and  energetic  young  woman  with 
Philo  i)lant  and  55  early  well  developed  Wyandotte  pullets  raised 
by  her  in  the  jilant.    Tremendous  lot  of  work  put  in. 

"Good  output  of  winter  eggs  in  all  three  flocks.  Stove  man 
very  slightly  ahead.  Philo  lady  and  I  ^nip  and  tuck.'  But  now 
see  where  I  shine.  ]\[y  birds  by  long  odds  more  vigorous  than 
either  of  the  otlier  flocks.  Philo  lady  ran  a  small  hen  liospital 
on  the  side.  I  had  need  of  none.  Half  my  number  semi-tropical 
Leghorns. 

'T  came  to  scoff  and  remained  to  pray.  I  am  converted  and 
reformed.  Thought  I  understood  fowls.  For  nearly  fifty  years 
I  have  preached  ventilation.  Am  through.  Xo  ventilation  is 
necessary  for  a  bird  in  a  tree,  or  for  fowls  Avhich  have  practically 
the  same  exposure  to  the  outside  air  as  their  wild  progenitors  hail 
in  the  trees." 

Friend  Reader,  take  a  tip  from  Editor  Stoddard,  a  man  who 
knows  poultry  as  probably  no  other  living  man  on  this  green  earth 
does,  give  the  modern,  practical  open-front  house  a  thorough  and 
fair  trial,  forget  your  doubts  and  let  experience  convince  you. 
Even  if  you,  too,  have  come  to  scoff,  you  will  remain  to  pray. 

Secretary  F.  D.  Coburn,  of  the  Kansas  State  Board  of  Agri- 
culture, says  relative  to  poultry  housing:  "Pure  air  must  be 
supplied  at  all  times  if  the  fowls  are  to  do  their  best.  Pure  fresh 
air  is  a  tonic — an  invigorator — and  will  do  more  toward  keeping  the 
fowls  healthy  than  all  the  nostrums  ever  invented.  "Whatever  plan 
(of  housing)  is  used,  pure  fresh  air  must  be  supplied.  It  i<  not 
a  luxury,  but  a  necessity — just  as  essential  to  thrift  and  health  as 
food  and  water." 

C.  L.  Opperman,  instructor  in  poultry  husbandry,  says:  "The 
perfection  of  the  open-air  house  has  made  it  possil)le  to  save  almost 
one-half  the  cost  over  former  construction,  for  it  lias  been  demon- 
strated that  the  health  and  productiveness  of  the  flock  is  much 
better  than  when  double-walled  construction  and  various  ventilating 
devices  were  in  use." 

Henry  B.  Prescott,  practical  poultryman,  Derry.  X.  IF.,  believes 
in  fresh  air  for  poultry  of  all  ages.  His  remarks  concerning  chicks 
are  of  interest:  "An  abundance  of  good  vitalized  air  is  an  import- 
ant factor  in  poultry  raising.  The  fresh  air  chick  comes  into  the 
world  with  an  especially  good  lease  on  life  for  he  is  pops"-sed  of 
one  of  the  most  valuable  qualities  in  man  or  beast,  that  of  ])ower 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  27 

of  resistance  or  disease  resisting  ability.  When  we  want  a  fire 
to  burn  more  freely  we  open  the  drafts  and  allow  a  free  contact  of 
the  air  with  the  fuel;  when  we  want  the  best  development  of  the 
chick  or  better  results  with  adult  fowls,  we  must  see  to  it  that  the 
supply  of  oxygen  is  unlimited.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  let 
the  chick  live  in  the  fresh  air  from  hatching  time  to  maturity." 

Joseph  Tolman,  Eockland,  Mass.,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  fresh- 
air  housing,  says:  *Tn  the  spring  of  1903,  after  eight  years  in 
the  poultry  business,  using  old-fashioned,  closed  house  methods, 
and  having  very  poor  results,  I  decided,  upon  the  advice  of  Dr. 
Prince  T.  ^Yoods,  the  well-known  writer  and  authority  on  poultry 
diseases,  to  give  my  fowls  more  fresh  air  both  night  and  da}^  I 
have  learned  that  fresh-air  methods  mean  better,  healthier,  more 
profitable  poultry.  Fresh  air  prevents  and  cures  disease.  It 
increases  the  egg  yield,  insures  fine  fertility,  good  hatches,  and  big 
sturdy  chicks  that  live  and  thrive.  Fowls  housed  in  my  open-front 
house  show  practically  no  check  in  egg  yield,  no  matter  how  severe 
or  how  sudden  the  winter  changes  of  weather  may  be.  I  was  nearly 
down  and  out.  Adopting  fresh-air  methods  put  me  on  my  feet 
again  and  enabled  me  to  make  a  success  of  my  poultry  keeping. 
Now,  after  nine  winters  of  fresh-air  housing  of  breeding  and  laying 
stock  and  fresh-air  rearing  for  the  young  flocks,  I  am  planning  to 
build  more  open-front  buildings  and  have  invented  and  built  a  large 
successful  fresh-air  brooding  system  that  makes  chick  raising  easy." 

D.  W.  Eich,  Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa,  has  had  five  or  six  years  ex- 
perience with  open-front  houses  and  finds  them  a  great  success  in 
the  severe  and  changeable  climate  of  that  section.  Such  houses 
are  still  quite  new  and  novel  in  his  neighborhood,  but  his  success 
with  them  is  interesting  many  poultry  keepers.  Among  the  benefits 
of  fresh-air  houses  claimed  by  Mr.  Kich  are:  "Hardier,  healthier 
and  more  vigorous  fowls,  with  roup  and  colds  almost  eliminated." 
He  believes  that  in  the  near  future  the  open-front  house  will  be 
the  t3'pe  of  poultr}^  building  in  general  use  throughout  the  middle 
west. 

F.  C.  Marshall,  AVcst  Burke,  Yt.,  prefers  open-front  colony  houses 
and  believes  that  they  will  solve  the  problem  of  producing  and 
maintaining  healthy  j^oultry  in  his  state.  He  finds  that  it  has 
improved  the  health  and  vigor  of  his  flocks. 

l)r.  C.  Bricault,  Lawrence,  Mass.,  says:  "I  was  a  warm-house 
advocate  at  first,  but  when  I  saw  the  good  effects  of  the  open  house 
I  adopted  it  and  I  would  not  go  back  to  the  closed  house.  I  have 
tried  open-front  houses  over  twelve  years,  so  am  in  a  position  to 
judge." 


28  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

Prof.  James  Drvdcii,  Oregon  x\fT:ricultnral  College,  claims  that 
tests  he  lias  made  show  that  fowls  ])refer  an  open-front  house  even 
though  they  have  ))een  accustomed  to  a  closed  house.  A  flock 
which  had  been  originally  divided  equally  between  two  houses,  one 
closed  and  the  other  open-front,  was  given  the  choice  between  the 
two  houses  and  at  roosting  time  about  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  the 
hens  crowded  into  the  open  house.    He  says : 

"It  is  the  nature  of  the  hen  to  roost  in  the  tree  rather  than  in 
a  house,  and  the  2:)oultryman  should  study  her  nature  if  he  wishes 
to  succeed. 

"There  are  times,  of  course,  in  severe  storms  when  chickens 
prefer  the  shelter  of  a  roof  to  roosting  in  a  tree,  but  the  lesson 
is  that  fowls  prefer  the  out-door  life,  or  the  ^simple  life,'  and  when 
we  put  them  in  close  houses  and  compel  them  to  live  there  under 
the  mistaken  notion  that  we  are  being  good  to  them  we  are  imposing 
conditions  that  will  result  in  decreased  vitality.  Housing  is  really 
an  artificial  condition  for  chickens  and  it  is  a  serious  mistake  in 
poultry-keeping  to  follow  too  closely  artificial  lines." 

Many  more  successful  poultry  workers  could  be  quoted  in  favor 
of  the  open-front  house,  but  this  chapter  must  he  brouglit  to  a 
close  and  I  will  cite  but  one  more  authority  and  that  an  important 
one.  Many  poultrymen  who  believe  in  fresh-air  are  still  afraid  to 
use  an  entirely  open-front  house  in  cold  climates  and  cling  to 
curtain-fronts  or  curtains  in  front  of  the  roost.  With  fine  mesh 
wire  netting  over  the  open  front  curtains  arc  more  oljjectionable 
than  useful.  I  do  not  l)clieve  in  the  use  of  curtains,  no  matter  what 
kind  of  fowls  you  keep  or  where  your  house  is  located.  Curtains, 
or  any  kind  of  shutters,  in  the  front  of  an  open-front  building  defeat 
the  purpose  of  the  house.  Curtains  collect  dust  and  filth  and  strain 
the  air  through  it.  They  get  wet  and  foul  and  render  the  house 
more  liable  to  dampness.  I  cannot  see  any  possible  practical  use 
for  curtains  in  an  open  house  except  that  they  may  possibly  keep 
out  the  little  snow  which  sifts  in  through  the  wire  screen,  and  the 
snow  does  not  blow  into  a  properly  constructed  fresh-air  house  in 
sufficient  quantity  to  cause  any  trouble.  I  do  not  approve  of  curtains 
in  open-front  houses  and  I  most  earnestly  urge  you  not  to  use  them. 
Build  your  house  right  and  you  will  find  it  all  right  when  run 
open.  Here  are  some  extracts  on  the  subject  from  the  1909  Report 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  the  Province  of  British 
Columbia.  When  the  open-front  house  has  proved  better  than  the 
curtain-front  or  the  closed  houses  in  a  climate  like  British  Colum- 
bia, I  don't  think  that  any  of  us  need  worry  about  the  use  of 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  29 

open-front  houses  in  severe  cold  climates.  Following  is  quoted  from 
the  report : 

"In  place  of  the  curtain-front  houses  we  find  the  open-front 
houses  giving  hetter  satisfaction.  Considering  the  climatic  condi- 
tions of  this  Province,  the  open-front  house  is  deemed  most  ad- 
visable. 

"What  the  curtain-front  house  was  to  the  closed  house,  so  the 
modern  Afresh-air'  house  is  to  the  curtain-front  house.  The  ad- 
vantages of  this  house  over  the  curtain-front  house  are  many.  It 
is  less  expensive  and  less  labor  is  required  in  tending  the  flocks. 
A  larger  supply  of  pure  air  is  supplied  to  the  fowls  at  all  times,  thus 
keeping  the  birds  in  better  health,  with  an  increase  in  the  fertility 
of  the  eggs  and  a  larger  egg  yield. 

"The  birds  are  protected  at  all  times  from  draughts  by  the  tight 
back,  sides  and  roof.  Only  one  side  of  the  house  being  open,  cold 
winds  do  not  penetrate  the  house.  The  fowls  are  more  comfortable 
all  of  the  time  and  seem  to  enjoy  the  greater  abundance  of  fresh 
air  than  is  sup]^lied  by  the  old  closed  house  or  when  the  air  is 
diffused  through  a  curtain. 

"Tn  brief,  a  cheaply  built  house  with  an  open  front,  will  give 
equallv  as  good  results  as,  if  not  better  than,  a  more  expensive  or 
warmer  house.  N'ot  only  will  poultry  lay  more  eggs  if  the  house  is 
supplied  with  plenty  of  fresh  air,  but  the  hatchability  of  the  eggs 
from  such  houses  will  be  greater,  and  a  stronger  and  more  thrifty 
brood  of  chickens  will  be  the  result." 


30 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


Woods'  open-front  house  in  use  at  Oak  Hill  Poultry  Farm,  Kingsbury, 
Quebec,  March  11,  1911.  Snow  was  four  feet  deep  and  photo  was  taken 
five  feet  above  snow  level.  There  was  a  five-foot  drift  back  of  door.  Houses 
are  single  boarded  and  sides  covered  with  "  Neponset  rope  roofing''  and  roof 
v\ith  "Paroid."  These  houses  are  rebuilt  12x12  colony  houses  to  make 
fresh-air  houses  12x18  feet. 


Two  Woods'  oi>en-front  poultry  houses  at  Oak  Hill  Farm,  Kingsbury, 
Quebec,  March  11,  1911.  The  further  house  is  almost  hidden  hy  snow  drifts, 
which  cover  windbreaks  completely. 


CHAPTER   III. 
Hints  and  Helps  on  Building 


XPEEIEXCE  in  carpenter  work  need  not  be  ex- 
tensive in  order  to  build  an  open-i'ront  poultry 
house.  Anyone  who  has  any  aptness  for  learning 
how  to  handle  tools  can  soon  master  the  essentials 
of  house  building-  and  will  not  find  tlie  work  of 
construction  very  difficult. 

Right  here,  in  Plymouth  County,  Massachusetts,  two  city  girls 
have  started  in  the  "poultry  business  and  are  making  a  success  of 
it.  They  had  had  no  experience  with  poultry  or  in  carpenter  work, 
l)ut  thev  determined  to  build  their  own  poultry  houses  and  they  did 
it  and  did  it  well.  If  two  inexperienced  city  girls  can  frame,  board 
in,  and  shingle  a  building  and  make  a  good  job  of  it,  others  can 
certainly  learn  to  do  it  and  the  man  or  well  grown  boy  who  thinks 
tliat  he  can't,  ought  to  brace  up  and  trij. 

The  tools  required  are  not  many;  a  full  tool  kit  is  mighty  handy 
to  have  but  is  not  necessary.  The  following  will  serve  the  purpose 
of  the  amateur  builder : 

Sjurit  level  with  plumi). 

Folding  two-foot  rule. 

Steel  square. 

Chalk  line  and  chalk. 

Car])enter"s  pencil. 

Nail  hammer. 

Nail  set. 

Shingling  hatchet. 

Eachet  bit  brace. 

One-inch  bit  and  a  l)it  of  same  diameter  as  window  bolts. 

^Fediuni  hand  saw. 

Eip  saw. 

Compass  saw. 

Screwdriver  to  fit  bit  brace. 

Small  monkey  wrench. 

Combination  pliers. 

Draw  knife. 

Plane. 

One-half  inch  chisel. 

31 


32 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


Axe. 

Crow  bar. 

Post  hole  digger. 

Round  point  shovel. 

While  many  useful  tools  might  be  added  to  the  above  list,  it  will 
make  a  very  jiandy  kit  for  the  beginner.  A  man  handy  with  tools, 
and  used  to  working  with  whatever  comes  to  hand,  can  get  along 
with  considerably  less.  I  used  to  do  my  own  building  with  a  very 
small  outfit,  consisting  of  a  good  strong  pocket  knife,  a  shingling 
hatchet,  two  saws,  a  screwdriver,  crow  bar  and  a  round  pointed 
shovel ;  and  I  got  along  very  well. 

Boards.  In  selecting  the  materials  for  house  building  a  consider- 
able saving  can  be  made  on  the  covering  boards  if  the  outside  of  the 
house  is  to  be  covered  with  some  good  roofing  felt  (heavy  roofing 
with  a  graveled  outer  surface  preferred).     In  such  case  common 


Detail  of  eaves  of  poultry  house  ^^heu 
flush  boarded.  Manner  of  making  eave^ 
with  double  course  of  shingles  is  sho^^  n ; 
also  method  of  putting  on  the  roofing 
fabric  on  roof  and  sides.  This  makes 
the  tightest  joint  possible  at  the  ea\  es 
and  is  wind-proof. 


PLATL   -^      "■ 


to  $9  per  thousand 
will  answer  very  well.  They  are  not  quite  good  enough  or  heavy 
enough  to  shingle  over.  Common  country  ''bull''  or  pitch  pine 
boards  can  be  had  lor  from  $8  to  $T2  per  thousand,  that  will 
hold  shingles  as  long  as  the  nails  last,  but  small  nails  must  be 
used  that  will  not  go  through  the  boards.  All  of  these  boards  are 
usually  cut  in  box  board  mills  and  run  %-inch  in  thickness. 

Common  %  or  1-inch  hemlock  or  other  covering  boards  are  best 
for  holding  shingles  and  cost  more;  usually  cannot  be  had  for 
less  than  $24  per  thousand. 

North  Carolina  hard  pine  matched  %-incli  "roofers"  cost  me 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  33 

w 
$25  per  thonsand  and  I  put  them  on  up  and  down  without  any 
covering  and  give  them  a  good  coat  of  paint.  This  makes  a  neat 
house.  The  i-oof  boards  are  covered  with  roofing  material.  It  is 
a  little  trouble  to  make  such  a  house  tight,  but  it  appears  to  be 
comfortable;  though,  personally,  I  like  a  shingled  house  better. 
The  house  shown  in  the  illustrations  described  in  Chapter  V  are 
from  jDliotographs  of  Woods'  house  covered  in  the  "X.  C.  roofers" 
and  which  were  taken  before  house  was  painted.  Such  a  house 
could  be  shingled  but  it  would  not  be  economy  to  shingle  over 
matched  boards  as  such  lose  the  width  of  the  match  in  laying  and 
do  not  cover  as  well  as  common  boards.  For  shingling,  the  house 
should  be  boarded  horizontally. 

Frame  Material.  For  frame  of  building  common  country  pine 
framing  stuff  can  often  be  had  cheaply  in  some  sections,  but  it 
seldom  pays  to  use  it.  Good  spruce  framing  material  can  be 
had  for  slightly  higher  cost,  is  a  great  deal  stronger,  holds  nails 
better  and  makes  a  much  better  and  more  lastins:  buildin.ij;.     If 


•R£.\K.    T(f{FTer{ 


^  C|^^      l^k.]ori^ 


FRo/vr  HArrcR.  )    f  ^'Lk.}oi\^ 


r-^\ 


Diagram    showing    method    of    notching    rafters    for    Woods'    Open-air 

Poultry  House. 

you  irame  witli  pine  you  need  larger  timbers  than  where  spruce 
is  used. 

Hoof  and  SJi ingles.  For  covering  the  roof  I  like  good  clear 
shingles  best,  laid  A^y^  inches  to  the  weather.  It  takes  about  800 
shingles  to  cover  100  square  feet  when  so  laid  and  requires  about 
4  pounds  of  shingle  nails  to  fasten  them  on.  A  man  can  lay  1,500 
to  2,000  shingles  a  day.  In  laying  shingles  always  have  a  double 
course  at  the  eaves. 

Where  shingles  are  used  to  cover  sides  they  may  be  either  first 
or  second  "clears"  and  may  be  laid  either  5  or  qYj  inches  to  the 
woaiher.  So  laid  it  will  take  from  720  to  055  shingles  to  cover  100 
S(iuare  feet.  If  shingles  are  so  put  on  as  to  lap  or  break  joints  at 
the  corners  of  the  building  it  makes  a  good  tight  and  attractive 
finish  and  no  finishing  boards  are  needed  for  the  corners.  If 
finishing  boards  are  used,  waterproof  sheathing  j)aper  should  be 


34  OPKX-ATR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

used  under  tlie  joint  wlierc  .sliin<iles  and  fmi^li  boards  meet.  Finisli 
Ijoards  or  a  frame  will  be  needed  around  doors  and  windows,  and  it 
is  well  to  rabl)et  the  top  iinisli  board  of  docn*  or  window  to  allow 
sbin^zles  to  lap  over  it  and  keep  ont  the  weather. 

A\'hei-e  shiiiiiles  are  nsed  ]iaiiit  the  finish  boards,  doors  and 
window  sash,  bnt  do  not  paint  the  shin^rles;  let  them  weather. 
"Weathered  shin«iles  will  last  longer  than  painted  ones  and  I 
think  that  they  look  better. 

^fake  your  bnildinfr  to  nse  and  wear,  save  on  the  cost  whore 
you  can  without  sacrifice  of  strength  or  durability. 

Xails.  Where  %-inch  box  board  stock  is  used  I  prefer  six- 
penny cement  coated  wire  nails  for  boarding  in,  and  three-penny 
galvanized  cut  nails  or  cement  coated  wire  nails  for  fastening 
on  the  shingles.  The  galvanized  nails  will  last  longest.  If 
boarding  in  stock  is  %-  or  1-inch  thick  boards,  use  eight-penny  cut 
nails  to  ])ut  on  the  boards  and  four-penny  galvanized  cut  nails  for 
laying  the  shingles. 

For  frame  where  eight-penny  nails  are  not  sufficiently  large  to 
hold  when  "toe-nailed  in,"  use  4i4.-incli  or  thirty-penny  wiie 
spikes.     Ten-penny  nails  may  be  used  in  framing. 

It  takes  from  4  to  5  pounds  of  nails  to  lay  a  thousand  shingles. 
About  30  pounds  of  eight-penny  nails  are  required  for  each 
thousand  feet  of  covering  l)oards. 

Floors.  The  character  of  the  soil  on  which  you  locate  your 
poultry  house  should  determine  the  kind  of  floor.  Exception  to 
this  rule  where  for  any  reason  it  is  desired  to  elevate  the  house 
and  have  a  run  beneath  it.  AVhere  house  is  elevated  you  must  have 
a  double  board  floor. 

On  light  sandy,  leachy,  well-drained  soils  an  earth  floor  will 
answer  every  purpose  and  prove  satisfactory,  but  it  will  not  be 
rat-nrocf. 

On  heavy  or  clayey  soils,  or  in  any  location  that  does  not  drain 
well,  or  wiiere  sub-soil  is  such  that  it  is  dillicult  to  keep  an  eaith 
floor  sweet  and  wholesome,  then  use  a  raised  board  floor  (that 
you  can  get  a  good  ratter  dog  under),  or  lay  a  good  solid  cement 
floor  laid  on  a  bed  of  rock  or  cinders  or  on  a  layer  of  two-ply 
tarred  paper. 

Cement  floors  are  best  and  may  be  made  six  parts  good  coarse 
sharp  sand  and  clean  gravel  to  one  part  cement  (parts  by  meas- 
ure). Mix  well  dry  and  do  not  wet  until  ready  to  use.  Use 
just  enough  water  to  have  it  wet  through  and  to  handle  well. 
Tamp  it  well  in  ])lace.  ^Fake  the  cenuMit  floor  21/.  to  3  inch.es  thick 
inside  of  house  and  about  G  inehes  thick  under  sills  for  foundation. 


FOR  ALL  CLIAL\TES  35 

Set  wood  sills  in  cement  or  bolt  them  to  it.  Floor  inside  should 
come  about  half  way  up  on  inside  of  «ill.  Sills  should  be  placed 
before  cement  sets.  A  finish  coat  of  one  part  cement  and  two 
parts  sharp  sand  will  give  a  better  floor  and  may  be  made  smooth. 
Make  it  half  an  inch  thick  and  moisten  the  first  cement  floor 
before  you  lay  the  finish  coat.  A  cement  floor  is  always  better 
for  having  a  good  crushed  rock  or  cinder  foundation  under  it. 

Wood  floors  must  be  tight  and  smooth  or  you  cannot  keep  them 
clean.  There  must  be  a  way  to  get  under  tliem  or  rats  will  nest 
beneath  the  floor.  Wood  floors  should  be  double  and  top  layer 
should  be  laid  across  (at  right  angles  to)  the  bottom  layer,  tar 
paper  between  the  layers  is  advisable  if  top  is  not  made  of  matched 
boards. 

Floors  of  either  wood  or  cement  should  be  covered  with  1  or 
2  inches  of  sand  for  summer  use  and  with  1  or  2  inches  of  sand 
and  6  to  8  inches  of  bright  straw  litter  (to  be  renewed  when 
badly  soiled)   for  winter  use. 

Earth  floors  need  more  attention  than  any  other  kind.  If  not 
cared  for  the  soil  will  become  contaminated  to  a  depth  of  not 
less  til  an  10  inches  and  sometimes  18  inches  in  a  single  year.  If 
neglected,  and  the  soil  not  renewed  at  least  once  and  better  twice 
a  year,  the  soil  may  become  contaminated  with  disease  producing 
germs  and  filth  to  a  depth  of  3  or  more  feet  in  a  few  seasons.  To 
keep  an  earth  floor  sweet,  in  a  sandy  location,  requires  the  removal 
of  at  least  12  inches  of  top  earth  each  year  and  renewal  with 
new  sand. 

Framing.  Spruce  is  the  best  framing  material.  Don't  frame 
too  light.  If  you  board  up  and  down  you  will  use  less  framing 
stuff.  I  would  not  board  the  roof  up  and  down;  roof  boards  are 
more  difficult  to  lay  tliat  way  and  cut  to  more  waste  and  it  does 
not  make  quite  as  stiff  a  building.  Where  matched  stock  is  used 
and  no  covering,  board  sides  up  and  down.  You  must  decide  on 
how  you  will  board  in  the  building  before  you  ]olace  your  frame. 

For  sills  of  building  20x20  feet,  use  outside  sills  of  4x6-inch 
stuff  and  a  middle  sill  of  4x4-inch ;  10x18  foot  buildings  or 
smaller  use  outside  sills  of  4x4-inch  stuff;  no  middle  sills  re- 
quired. 

For  studding,  straps  about  windows  and  doors,  and  for  plates 
use  2x3-inch  stock.  Place  as  shown  in  plans  in  Chapters  V 
and  VI.  ^ 

For  roosts  use  2x3-inch  spruce  stock,  with  2-inch  smooth  side  up 
and  sharp  edges  rounded  with  a  i)lane. 

For   rafters  use   clear   2x4-inch   spruce.     Place   2   to   2M>   feet 


36  OPEN-AIR  roULTin'   HOUSES 

apart  unless  you  liave  a  middle  partition  which  supports  roof,  when 
they  may  be  placed  3  feet  apart.  Bear  in  mind  that  the  roof  has 
to  be  strong  enough  to  hold  the  weight  of  snow  in  winter.  Rafters 
should  be  notclied  to  fit  plate  (see  illustration),  but  do  not  notch 
too  deep  as  it  will  weaken  rafter. 

Either  eiglit  or  ten-penny  nails  may  be  used  in  fastening  studs 
in  place.  The  larger  nails  are  easier  to  place  to  hold.  I  like  to 
spike  plates  and  strap  to  studs  and  to  spike  rafters  in  place.  It 
is  easier  to  do  that  way  if  you  are  working  alone.  When  putting 
up  the  frame  get  all  sills  level  and  the  studs  plumb.  Fasten  them 
in  position  with  brace  timbers  until  you  can  nail  them  firmly  in 
position.  Keep  the  frame  well  braced  and  be  sure  that  corners 
are  all  plumb  until  you  have  stiffened  the  building  sufficiently 
by  laying  covering  boards  enough  to  hold  all  in  place. 

Framing  is  the  difficult  part.  If  you  get  your  frame  right,  the 
boarding  in  is  easy. 

Eaves.  Before  you  put  up  your  frame  decide  whether  you  want 
to  make  projecting  (or  overhanging)  eaves,  or  to  make  flush  joints 
at  eaves  when  lioarding  in  and  get  your  overhang  with  shingles. 

It  is  easier  to  make  the  flush  joint  eaves  tight  and  wind  proof. 
To  do  this  the  rafters  are  cut  short  so  that  they  are  just  flush 
with  the  outer  edge  of  the  jdates.  The  roof  boards  come  down 
flush  with  ends  of  rafters  and  the  side  boards  come  up  flush  with 
the  top  of  roof  board.  On  this  joint  at  lower  edge  of  roof  a 
double  course  of  shingles  is  laid  to  break  joints  and  to  form  an 
overhang  of  3  inches  beyond  side  boarding,  forming  the  eaves 
and  carrying  the  drip  aw^ay  from  the  building. 

To  make  projecting  eaves  the  rafters  are  cut  long  to  extend 
from  6  to  8  inches  beyond  the  side  w^alls  front  and  rear.  The 
side  boards  are  put  on  up  to  level  of  top  of  rafters  and  planed  to 
fit  roof  boards,  which  are  laid  to  end  of  rafters  and  to  cover  a 
narrow  finish  board  nailed  to  end  of  rafters.  It  is  a  diltieult 
joint  to  make  tight  and  is  usually  blocked  still  further  by  boards 
fitted  between  rafters;  placed  over  the  shingles  or  siding  fabric 
and  made  as  tight  as  possible. 

Side  Walls.  Double  walls  with  "dead  air''  spaces  and  all  siu-h 
expensive  nonsense  are  not  necessary  for  buildings  intended  for 
breeding  and  laying  stock.  Leave  the  double  wall  for  the  brooder 
house,  wJiich  must  be  insulated  in  order  to  save  w^aste  of  heat 
and  coal. 

A  single  wall  is  the  best  for  the  poultry  house  and  it  costs  less. 
In  clinuites  where  the  winters  are  mild  the  side  walls  may  be 
boarded  up  and  down  and  made  of  matched  boards  or  of  common 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  37 

boards  and  the  cracks  covered  with  wide  battens.  Such  houses  have 
yielded  good  results  where  winters  arc  severe^  but  personally  1  like 
the  appearance  of  a  building  with  shingled  sides,  believe  that  it 
lasts  longer  and  know  that  the  side  and  rear  walls  are  much  more 
apt  to  be  tight  than  where  matched  stock  or  battened  common 
boards  are  used. 

If  boards  are  to  be  covered  with  roofing  fabric  or  with  shingles 
you  can  save  more  than  the  cost  of  the  shingles  or  roofing  by  using 
cheaper  boarding  in  stock. 

Foundations.  It  pays  to  make  a  good  foundation  for  a  per- 
manent building.  If  set  on  posts  use  cedar  posts  and  set  three  feet 
in  the  ground.-  If  you  have  a  cement  foundation  get  small  rock 
and  cinders  for  at  least  a  foot  below  your  concrete  and  have  your 
cement  or  concrete  wall  at  least  6x6  inches  in  which  your  sills  are 
fastened  to  bolts  fixed,  in  the  cement.  If  you  use  only  a  rock 
foundation  get  it  low  enough  so  that  frost  will  not  move  it.  See 
paragraph  on  cement  floors  in  this  chapter. 

Poriahle  or  Permanent  Buildings.  Large  colony  buildings  should 
be  built  to  stay  on  a  permanent  foundation.  Small  colony  houses 
can  be  made  portable.  If  so  built  they  require  stiffer  framing 
and  heavier  sills  to  stand  moving  about.  If  made  to  move  they 
require  no  floor  and  sills  should  rest  on  the  ground  or  on  thin 
boards.  Moving  the  house  to  new  ground  once  each  season  will 
insure  a  clean  and  safe  earth  floor.  They  should  only  be  used 
on  well  drained  land.  Portable  houses  for  damp  or  moist  locations 
should  have  board  floors;  or  when  placed  in  position  for  the  season 
should  be  filled  with  dry  sand  to  the  level  of  top  of  sills. 

In  buying  covering  boards  or  framing  stuff  buy  such  lengths  as 
will  cut  with  the  least  waste.  Refuse  boards  with  large  loose  knots, 
and  cracked  or  split  frame  stuff.  Do  not  accept  badly  warped  or 
twisted  boards.  You  can  only  afford  to  use  cheap  lumber  when 
you  buy  it  at  so  low  a  price  that  it  makes  waste  and  shrinkage  a 
matter  of  small  importance.  If  you  have  to  pay  the  going  price 
for  good  material,  insist  on  getting  good  material  and  have  it 
in  lengths  that  Avill  fit  into  your  building  with  the  least  possible 
waste.     You  have  to  pay  for  the  waste. 

When  you  buy  new  windows,  paint  them  before  you  put  them  on 
and  touch  them  up  again  afterward.  It  pays,  and  makes  the 
windows  last  longer  and  holds  the  putty  in  place.  If  not  painted 
the  putty  will  dry  and.  fall  out  after  a  brief  exposure  to  the 
elements. 

Elevated  TToitses.  Some  poultrymen,  especially  those  with  limited 
land  area,  like  an  elevated  house  or  poultry  house  on  stilts.     The 


3S  OPKX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

open-front  lioiise  built  with  a  board  floor  can  easily  Ije  built  that 
way.  One  of  tlie  first  Woods  open-air  houses  was  built  on  stilts 
2i/>  feet  above  tlie  ground  level  and  was  made  rat  proof  by  inverting 
metal  pans  over  tops  of  posts  before  the  sills  were  spiked  to  the 
posts.  It  makes  a  good  house  so  built.  It  requires  a  double  board 
floor.  The  space  beneath  the  house  is  used  as  a  run  or  shelter 
when  the  fowls  are  permitted  to  run.  Such  a  building  is  best 
built  on  a  slope  so  that  soil  beneath  the  house  will  wash  well  in 
heavy  storms,  otherwise  it  is  difficult  to  clean  out  beneatli  the 
building.  Friends  in  ^lassachusetts  and  in  Michigan  built  a  num- 
ber of  Woods  houses  after  this  plan  and  like  them  very  much.  See 
illustrations. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Location  of  Poultry  Houses 


iVND  for  the  poultry  house  site  should  be  con- 
venientl}'  located  and  well  drained.  While  fowls 
will  thrive  and  do  well  on  almost  any  kind  of  land 
that  is  not  too  heavy  and  wet,  and  while  poor  light 
land  that  is  not  available  for  cropping  will  serve, 
it  does  not  follow  that  poor  land  is  best  or  that  it 
is  particularly  desirable  and  economical  to  use  for  poultry  runs. 

Land  that  will  grow  small  fruits,  orchard  trees,  and  take  a  good 
grass  sod  is  best  and  will  yield  the  best  returns.  Good  corn  land 
is  excellent,  and  a  not  too  heavy  loam  that  will  grow  garden  truck 
can  be  made  use  of  to  good  advantage.  The  advantage  of  such 
locations  for  profitable  poultry  keeping  is  considerable.  You  can 
alternate  crops  and  poultry,  make  your  land  pay  you  a  profit  on 
both  crops,  and,  what  is  equally  important,  cropping  the  land  part 
of  each  season,  or  every  other  season,  will  keep  the  soil  sweet  and 
prevent  diseases  which  result  from  poisoned  ground. 

Do  not  think  that  because  sandy  and  gravelly  soil  can  be  used 
for  poultry  that  you  should  seek  to  provide  it.  Sun-baked,  bare 
runs  are  not  desirable  and  are  only  to  be  considered  when  no  other 
location  is  available.  I  have  in  mind  a  Springfield,  Mass.,  poultry- 
keeper  who  several  years  ago  called  on  me  to  tell  him  what  was 
wrong  with  his  breeding  stock.  He  had  located  his  poultry 
house,  an  expensive  one,  on  a  very  desirable  southerly  slope  with 
a  fine  stretch  of  well  sodded  grass  land  in  front,  where  the  yards 
were  to  be  located.  He  had  read  somewhere,  or  someone  had  told 
him,  that  fowls  do  well  on  sand  and  gravel,  and  had  conceived 
the  notion  that  the  fine  black  soil,  well  turfed  with  grass  and 
clover,  in  front  of  his  house,  was  not  the  right  thing.  So,  he  had 
the  sod  removed  and  then  filled  in  the  yards  at  least  a  foot  deep 
with  gravel  and  sand.  He  could  not  understand  why  his  fowls 
failed  to  do  well  and  I  had  some  difficulty  in  convincing  him  that 
he  had  spoiled  his  runs  to  the  detriment  of  the  fowls,  and  that  the 
original  grass  land  was  almost  ideal  as  a  poultry  run  before  he 
tampered  with  it. 

Low,  heavy  clay  soil ;  that  floods  with  water  in  heavy  rains  and 
in  spring  and  fall,  and  that  bakes  dry  and  cracks  in  hot,  dry 

39 


40 


OPEX-AIR  rOULTRY  HOUSES 


weather,  is  the  least  desirable  of  all  loeatioiis  for  a  poiiltrv  plant. 
Yet  a  certain  man,  well  known  to  the  poultry  fraternity,  selected 
just  such  a  site  several  years  ai,^o  to  establish  a  model  poultry 
farm  for  experimental  and  instruction  purposes.  There  were 
plenty  of  better  locations  near  at  hand  to  be  had  for  less  money, 
but  he  would  have  that  one  in  spite  of  all  opposition.  It  has  cost 
thousands  of  dollars,  has  an  elaborate  system  of  tile  drainage  that 
don't  work  very  well,  on  account  of  the  lay  of  tlie  land  and  the 
character  of  the  soil,  and  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn  has 
not  yet  been  able  to  make  a  creditable  showing  in  the  production 


Spring  Garden  Poultry  Farm,  Frank  "\V.  noyd,  Prop.,  Birmingham,  Mich. 

of  poultry  or  poultry  produce,  though  it  has  been  in  operation  a 
numljer  of  years  and  has  had  enough  good  money  spent  on  it  to 
establish  several  good  practical  plants.  Today  it  still  poses  as  a 
plant  built  to  demonstrate  to  others  how  to  go  into  the  poultry 
business.  Nevertheless,  it  is  looked  upon  as  a  subject  for  joke  and 
jest  by  such  practical  poultrymen  as  have  visited  it,  and  it  certainly 
is  a  monumental  example  of  how  not  to  do  it  if  you  want  to 
establish  a  practical  and  profitable  poultry  farm. 

Salt  marsh  and  moist  meadow  land,  if  fairly  well  drained,  can  be 
utilized  for  poultry  provided  the  houses  and  a  part  of  the  range 


FOR  ALL  CLIAIATES 


41 


are  high  and  dry.  You  can  nse  such  land  if  you  have  to,  and 
^vhere  fowls  can  run  on  high  and  dry  land  a  part  of  the  time  there 
are  lots  of  worse  ranges  than  a  good  salt  marsh. 

The  hest  location  is  a  gentle  southerly  slope  of  light  sandy  loam, 
not  too  light  to  take  a  good  grass  sod,  and  having  a  good  coarse 
sand  or  gravel  suh-soil.  If  such  a  location  is  convenient  for  a  water 
supply  and  is  sheltered  with  evergreen  trees  on  the  north  and  west 
it  makes  a  very  nearly  ideal  place  for  huilding  a  poultry  plant. 
Eolling  land,  with  the  hollows  between  the  knolls  or  hills,  well 


Spring  Garden  Poultry  Farm,  Frank  W.  Floyd,  Prop.,  Birmingham,  Mich. 

drained,  makes  a  good  location,  hut  don't  get  the  poultry  houses  in 
the  hollows. 

Get  your  poultry  house  in  a  place  where  water,  from  melting  snow 
and  from  heavy  fall  of  rain,  will  always  drain  away  from  the  huild- 
ing. You  want  the  drip  from  the  roof  to  run  away  from  the  house, 
not  under  and  into  it. 

Facing  the  house  is  a  matter  that  will  depend  some  on  the 
particular  location  selected,  its  relation  to  the  surroundings  and 
the  climate  in  which  the  house  is  built.  Wherever  there  is  con- 
siderable frosty  or  freezing  weather  in  winter,  place  the  house  so 
that  it  will  get  the  most  sunlight  inside  during  the  cold  season. 

The  prevailing  wind  storms  for  the  particular  section  should 


42  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

also  be  taken  into  consideration,  also  whatever  windbreak  there  may 
be  near  the  house.  Try  to  locate  the  house,  siinli*rlit  considered, 
so  that  the  sweep  of  the  prevailing  winds  will  strike  the  house  at  an 
angle,  rather  than  flat  on  sides  or  ends. 

My  buildings  face  due  south  and  south  by  east.  Those  that  face 
south  by  east  get  the  most  winter  sun.  Some  houses  to  be  built 
on  the  southwesterly  slope  will  be  made  to  face  about  south-south- 
west. The  essential  point  is  to  get  as  much  sun  as  possible  into  all 
parts  of  the  house  (so  far  as  construction  permits  it)  and  to  have 
the  front  take  the  worst  southerly  storms  a  little  on  the  slant  rather 
than  direct. 

The  immediately  surrounding  country  will  have  more  or  less  in- 
fluence on  the  position  of  the  poultry  house.  The  Woods  house 
built  for  purpose  of  illustrating  this  book  is  located  on  a  slight 
ridge  on  a  southerly  slope  and  land  drops  very  gradually  from  the 
house  to  the  south  and  a  little  to  southwest  and  southeast.  This 
building  faces  south  10  degrees  east  and  is  just  about  right  for 
the  location.  One  hundred  yards  north  of  the  building  is  a  strip 
of  thick  pine  woods  on  slightly  higher  land.  About  125  yards 
to  the  west  is  lower  land  well  wooded,  mostly  white  pine.  To  the 
south  and  east  there  is  open  country  for  a  considerable  distance. 
To  the  south  and  southwest  some  300  yards  or  more  away  is  the 
pond  and  the  outlet  of  Silver  Lake  and  through  this  opening  come 
some  of  the  fiercest  winds  of  this  location.  The  house  gets  the  force 
of  this  wind  directly  on  its  southwest  corner  and  the  wind  blows 
around  and  over  the  house,  but  does  not  make  itself  felt  in  it. 
Southerly  storms,  with  heavy  rain,  blowing  directly  across  the  open 
land  and  striking  this  building  almost  flat  on  the  wire  screen  of  the 
open  front,  have  not  wet  the  floor  for  a  greater  distance  than  3 
feet  immediately  back  from  the  opening  and  then  only  a  very  little 
water  has  blown  in,  not  enough  to  make  the  floor  very  wet.  It 
dries  out  very  quickly.  In  Xovember,  1011,  we  had  three  exceed- 
ingly heavy  rains  accompanied  by  very  high  southerly  wind  which 
drove  the  rain  before  it  at  an  angle  of  about  20  degrees  or  less. 
The  house  staid  dry  and  comfortal)le  through  those  storms  and  we 
are  not  likely  to  ever  experience  anything  more  severe  unless  we  get 
a  cyclone  which  will  carry  ofp  the  building. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  provide  wind  breaks  to  shut  off  the  northerly 
storms  in  winter.  A  good  row  of  evergreen  trees  is  about  the  1)est 
possible  wind  break,  but  stacks  of  marsh  hay,  straw,  and  corn 
stover  are  excellent  and  can  ])e  utilized  so  as  to  provide  outdoor 
scratching  places  in  winter.  Corn  stover  in  shocks  set  in  rows  on 
east  and  west  side  of  house,  and  extending  20  to  50  feet  in  front 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  43 

of  the  building,  will  make  a  fine  Avincl  break  and  provide  an  out- 
door run  for  winter  use  that  is  well  worth  while.  The  shocks 
are  best  placed  against  fencing  so  that  they  will  hold  up  in  high 
winds.  Where  a  drive  or  walk  runs  in  front  of  the  house  let  the 
row  of  shocks  extend  to  east  and  west  and  turn  out  the  fowls  on 
south  side  of  the  rows. 

Wherever  houses  are  located  in  exposed  positions  attention  given 
to  providing  suitable  wind  breaks  will  be  well  repaid.  The  secret 
of  profitable  poultry  keeping  is  making  your  fowls  comfortable  at 
all  times.     Comfort  means  much. 

Personallv  I  prefer  a  number  of  colony  houses  to  a  long  or 
continuous  poultry  house,  though  there  is  some  saving  in  labor  with 
the  continuous  house  where  a  large  number  of  birds  can  be  cared 
for  under  one  roof.  With  colony  houses  conveniently  arranged 
with  a  view  to  labor  saving,  and  so  disposed  as  to  make  best  use 
of  the  land  available  for  poultry,  there  is  very  little  extra  work 
and  the  danger  in  case  of  sickness,  or  other  trouble,  is  very  much 
less  than  where  a  long  house  is  used. 

Owing  to  the  wide  stretch  of  open  front  in  a  long  house  I  prefer 
to  have^a  solid  partition  for  every  twenty  feet  of  length  of  the 
building. 

The  plans  given  in  this  book  are  for  colony  houses  but  can  be 
made  to  suit  the  requirements  of  anyone  who  wishes  a  long  house, 
by  simply  considering  the  plans  as  for  one  section  of  a  continuous 
building,'  and  adding  as  many  sections  as  may  be  desired  to  give 
the  length  of  house  wanted. 

The  open-front  house  may  be  operated  with  or  without  yards. 
For  breeding  stock  plentv  of  yard  room  is  to  be  desired.  Where 
fowls  are  kept  for  laving  only',  they  may  be  confined  in  the  house 
all  of  the  time  if  not  too  crowded.  One  hundred  layers  may  be 
kept  the  year  'round  in  a  Woods  open-front  house  20x20  feet  of 
stud  specified  in  plans  given  in  this  Ijook. 

Long,  narrow  vards  are  to  be  preferred  to  short  ones.  Where 
possi])le  each  house  should  have  two  yards,  or  double  yards,  so  that 
one  can  be  cultivated  while  the  other  is  in  use  for  the  fowls.  With 
a  lonsr,  narrow  vard  you  will  need  rather  less  space  per  bird  than 
where^'squarc  yards  are  used.  Allow  from  50  to  75  square  feet  of 
Yard  space  per  bird. 

"  Lsin^  open-front  colonv  houses  each  20x20  feet,  1,000  breeding 
birds  can  be  comfortablv' housed  and  provided  with  double  vards 
on  about  three  acres  of  land.  If  there  is  plenty  of  land  available 
from  four  to  five  acres  per  thousand  head  of  breeders  can  be  used 
to  better  advantage.    If  continuous  plan  house  is  used  1,000  breeders 


44  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

can  1)0  lioused  and  yarded  on  from  two  and  onc-lialf  to  four  acres, 
accord  in  o  to  the  lay  of  the  land  and  the  shape  of  the  lot.  For 
layers  smaller  yards  may  be  used  or  the  birds  may  be  confined  to 
the  houses  and  not  allowed  to  run  out.  Some  successful  Qi:^^^  vvo- 
ducers  use  the  latter  method,  keep  the  layers  confined  to  the  house, 
push  them  hard  for  egg  production,  market  the  flocks  when  egg 
yield  falls  off  in  summer,  just  before  moulting  time,  and  then  stock 
the  houses  up  again  with  new  flocks  of  pullets  and  young  hens. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Dr.  P.  T.  Woods'  Improved  Open-Air  Poultry  House 

N  THE  FALL  of  1908  an  experimental  Woods' 
open-air  poultry  house  was  built  on  an  exposed  hill- 
side on  a  farm  in  northern  Massacnusetts.  It 
yielded  such  satisfactory  results  that  the  plans  were 
published  the  following  summer.  The  house  became 
immediately  popular  and  many  were  built  by  poultry 
keepers  throughout  the  United  States  and  Canada.  Reports  from 
north,  south,  east  and  west  show  that  the  house  has  proved  satis- 
factory under  a  yery  wide  range  of  climatic  conditions.  It  has 
stood  the  test  of  severe  winters  with  heavy  snows  or  with  high 
winds  and  bare  ground,  and  of  hot,  dry  summers  and  wet,  cold  and 
foggy  seasons. 

The  house  has  been  built  of  various  dimensions  and  used  as  a 
laying  house,  a  breeding  house  and  as  a  house  for  the  oj)eration  of 
individual  brooders,  Eeports  received  thus  far  have  been  very 
gratifying.  One  poultryman  reports  that  he  intends  to  build  a 
liot-water  pipe  brooder  house  on  a  modification  of  this  plan,  using 
curtains  between  front  and  rear  section  and  for  the  open  front  to 
prevent  waste  of  coal  and  heat  and  to  aid  in  regulation.  The  20x20 
foot  plan  has  been  built  as  a  colony  house  and  as  one  section  of  a 
long  or  continuous  house.  In  1910  a  Woods'  open-air  house 
20x400  feet  was  built  on  a  Connecticut  farm  and  proved  so  satis- 
factory that  another  house  of  same  size  was  built  in  1911.  In  the 
same  season  two  of  these  houses,  each  over  400  feet  long,  were 
built  on  another  Connecticut  poultry  farm.  A  Michigan  breeder 
built  one  to  house  500  breeders  and  has  found  it  very  satisfactory. 
Personally,  I  prefer  the  colony  house. 

If  the  house  is  to  be  built  on  the  long  or  continuous  plan,  the 
20x20  foot  plan  is  best  and  I  would  not  build  a  long  house  that  has 
sections  smaller  than  10x16  feet.  Would  keep  these  houses  the 
same  height  as  the  20x20  foot  house  herein  illustrated. 

For  small  colony  houses  the  best  dimensions  have  proved  to  be 
8  feet  wide  by  14  feet  deep  for  flocks  of  from  5  to  25  birds.  This 
house  can  be  made  a  little  lower  stud  than  the  20x20  house  and 
three  light  "cellar'.'  windows  used  in  the  monitor-top,  if  desired. 
For  flocks  of  30  to  40  birds  the  house  can  be  made  10x16  feet  or 

45 


46 


OPKX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


10x18  feet  for  flocks  of  40  to  GO.  I  prefer  such  liouses  built  the 
same  stud  as  the  t;?0x20  foot  liouse  and  to  use  six-liiiht  sash  in 
the  monitor  top.  Tlie  large  colony  house  20x20  feet  will  give  com- 
fortaljle  quarters  for  100  layers  or  breeders  and  150  layers  can  be 
housed  in  it.  There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  crowding  the  house 
to  the  limit  of  its  capacity.  One  hundred  females  and  5  or  G  males 
are  enough  to  keep  in  the  house  for  best  results,  but  in  the  fall  and 
early  winter  when  there  is  surplus  stock  on  hand  and  house  room 
is  scarce,  you  can  crowd  them  a  little  without  doing  any  serious 


UK.  r.  T.  AvooDs'  LMrwovi:!)  oi'KXAii:   !i.;lti:v  uorsi:. 

Fig.  1. — This  illustration  shows  four  outer  sills  (4x6  in.  spruce,  20  ft. 
long),  and  middle  sill  (4x4  in.  spruce)  leveled  and  spiked  to  posts. 
Posts  are  cedar  and  are  set  3  ft.  deep  in  ground.  View  is  from  north 
and  west.  West  posts  come  higher  above  ground  as  house  was  built 
without  grading  the  natural  slope  of  the  ridge.  Ends  of  sills  were 
halved  to  match  in  a  tight  rabbet  joint.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 

harm,  particularly  if  the  birds  have  liljeral  range.  Windows  in 
monitor  top  remain  closed  in  winter  and  are  kept  oj)en  in  summer. 
Woods'  Improved  Open-xVir  House,  as  illustrated  in  this  chapter, 
Fig.  1  to  Fig.  12  inclusive,  was  built  by  the  author  for  the  purpose 
of  illustrating  this  book.  T  could  not  get  a  carpenter  to  build  it  the 
way  I  wanted  it  built  or  to  wait  during  construction  for  time  for 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


47 


taking  suitable  pliotographs ;  so  I  had  to  do  the  carpenter  work  and 
photo'oraphing.  It  is,  therefore,  the  work  of  an  amateur  carpenter 
and  not  of  a  skilled  artisan.  Owing  to  the  considerable  amount  of 
editorial  and  other  work  that  had  to  be  done,  there  was  little  tnne 
for  the  house  building  and  it  had  to  be  built  in  odd  hours  and  spare 
time  from  other  work.  , 

Eventually  this  house  will  have  a  cement  floor,  but  it  was  decided 
to  run  it  through  the  first  winter  with  an  earth  fioor.  Xo  attempt 
was  made  to  level  or  grade  the  land.    With  a  square  and  line  the 


DIv     P     T     WOODS'   IMP-ROVED    01i:X-ATR    POULTEY   HOUSE. 

Yla-.  2.— Dimensions  of  this  house  are  20x20  ft.  sill  measurement.  This 
illnsti-ation  shows  the  rear  stu.ls  in  position  on  sills  and  the  rear  plate 
made  fast  to  top  of  studs.  Diagonal  straps  are. simply  braces  to  steady 
the  frame.  Studs  are  made  plumb  and  then  held  so  by  the  braces.  Studs 
and  plate  are  2x3  in.  spruce.  Eear  studs  are  4  ft.  long  and  there  are 
five  of  them.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 

location  of  the  20  foundation  posts  was  determined  and  the  holes 
ducr  ^vith  a  post-hole  digger.  These  posts  were  set  3  feet  m  the 
grmmd  and  tops  were  sawed  to  bring  the  sills  level,  with  corner  ot 
sills  at  hio-hest  point  of  ground  not  over  an  inch  above  ground  level. 
The  ends"^of  the  sills  were  squared  and  then  half  sawed  to  make  a 
tight  rabbet  joint  where  sills  join.    AYhen  sills  were  placed  in  posi- 


48 


OrKX-ATR  POl'T/rRY  TIOUSES 


tion  on  posts  tliev  were  leveled  and  eorners  squared  before  spiking 
them  to  the  posts.  Middle  sill  was  not  mortised  into  front  and  rear 
sill,  as  foundation  post  projected  enough  to  support  it  when  butted 
to  them.  Fig.  1  shows  posts  and  sills  in  position  for  foundation  of 
frame.  If  a  cement  foundation  had  been  ])repared  and  bolts  set  in 
the  cement  to  hold  sills,  considerably  lighter  sills  could  have  been 
used.  Sills  were  4xG-inch  spruce^  20  feet  long  and  middle  sill  4x4- 
inch  stutf. 

The  view  in  Fig.  2  is  taken  Iroin  the  same  pusitiun  and  shows  the 


DR.   P.   T.   ^V()()i)S'    j:\J1^K()VKD   OPEN-ATK   pofltry   ttot^se. 

Fig.  .3. — Illustriition  shows  frame  for  roar  or  hitjh  section  of  the  build- 
ini(.  Middle  studs  (2x3  in.  stock,  8  ft.  long)  are  shown  in  jtosition. 
Tpper  middle  plate  sjdked  to  top  of  studs  and  lower  middle  plate  spike<l 
to  front  of  studs  are  shown  in  place.  Plates  are  2x3  in.  stock  20  ft. 
long.  Lower  middle  plate  supports  rear  end  of  front  rafters.  Stud  of 
2x3  in.  stock  6  ft.  long  w^ith  "T"  plate  9  ft.  S  in.  long  is  shown  in 
center  of  this  section  to  support  center  of  roof  and  to  nail  middle  par- 
tition to.  Eight  rear  rafters  (2x4  in.  stock  14  ft.  long)  are  sho\\Ti  in 
place.     Diagonal  straps  are  for  braces  only.     (Photo  l>v  Dr.  Woods.) 


next  stage  in  construction.  Here  the  rear  studs  are  shown  in  posi- 
tion with  rear  plate  in  place  on  top  of  them.  The  diagonal  straps 
are  simply  ])races  to  ]i(dd  the  frame  dui'ing  construction.  This 
building  is  somewhat  lighter  framed   than  the  one  illustrated  in 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


49 


Chapter  VI,  as  the  sides  here  are  to  he  hoarded  up  and  down. 
Kear  otuds  are  of  2x3-inch  stock  and  are  4  feet  long.  There  are 
five  of  them.     Plate  is  2x3-inch  spruce  20  feet  long. 

The  next  step  was  to  prepare  five  2x3-inch  michlle  studs  8  feet 
long.  On  top  of  these  was  spiked  a  plate  of  same  dimension  stuff 
20  feet  long,  and  to  the  front"  of  each  about  4  feet  6  inches  from 
bottom  the  plate  which  supports  rear  of  front  rafters  was  spiked. 
This  can  be  done  with  frame  on  ground  and  when  it  is  tirmly  put 
together  it  is  easy  to  raise  it  into  position,  plumb  it,  brace  with 
diagonal  straps  and  then  nail  to  the  sills  and  the  middle  posts 


D"R.    P.    T.   WOODS'   IMPEOVED   OPEN-ATR   POTTLTEY   HOUSE. 

Fig.  4. — Eear  view  of  frame  for  rear  section  shown  in  Fig.  3,  looking 
from  north  and  east.  Position  of  studs,  plates,  rafters  and  side  straps  is 
clearly  shown.  This  rear  section  is  12x20  ft.  ground  plan.  Manner  of 
notching  rafters  and  ]>lacing  same  for  overhanging  eaves  is  clearly 
shown.     (Photo  l)y  Dr.  Woods.) 


(see  ]")osition  on  Fig.  3).  Eight  rafters  of  2x4-inch  spruce  14 
feet  long  were  then  prepared  by  notching  them  to  fit  plates.  Do 
not  notch  them  too  deep,  as  it  weakens  them.  See  illustration. 
Chapter  III.  Eafters  are  placed  2  feet  8  inches  apart,  and  are 
spiked  to  plates.  Fig.  3  shows  frame  for  rear  section  of  building, 
with  studs,  plates,  side  straps  and  rafters  in  position.     Stud  on 


50 


OPEX-AIR  rOULTRV  HOUSES 


east  side  is  2x3-ineli  stock  7  feet  long  and  is  placed  3  feet  from 
middle  stud;  3  foot  strap  is  placed  between  studs  at  G  feet  from 
sill  and  forms  top  of  door  frame.  Strap  8  feet  3  inches  long  is 
placed  between  door  and  rear  stud  to  nail  to  in  boarding  east  side. 
West  side  has  stud  G  feet  long  5  feet  8  inches  from  middle  stud, 
with  two  straps  for  top  and  bottow  of  window  frame  5  feet  8 
inches  long  between  it  and  middle  stud  and  one  strap  5  feet  7 
inches  long  between  it  and  rear  stud.     All  straps  are   2xo-inch 


^n' 


^/^j:^^.^m^'^'^  .:^i^p^"^s^?^^!. 


%^'(-^i0^^^S, 


DK.    P.    T.    W00D8'    TMPEOYED    OPEX-ATE    POULTEY    HOT^SE. 

Yin;.  5. — Front  view  of  frame  before  lioardiiig-  in.  Frame  is  complete 
except  for  straps  l)elow  windows  for  monitor  top.  Nine  front  studs 
(2x.3  in.  stock  3  ft.  41/..  in.  long)  are  shown  in  position;  also  front  plate 
_(2x:^  in.  stock  20  ft.  long)  and  eight  front  rafters  (2x4  in.  stock  8  ft.  (5 
in.  long),  are  ishown  in  position.  Diagonal  braces  are  left  in  place  until 
boarding  in  stiffens  the  building.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 

spruce.     Fig.  4  shows  rear  view  of  framing  here  described  viewed 
from  northeast. 

Front  frame  was  built  next.  First  nine  studs  each  2x3-inch 
spruce  3  feet  4V.  inches  long  were  placed  in  position,  as  shown  in 
Fig.  5,  and  front  plate  was  spiked  to  top  of  each.  Fight  rafters 
were  then  prepared  of  2x4-inch  spruce  8Vo  feet  long  and  notched 
to  fit  plates  and  spiked  in  place.     A  "T"  plate  of  2x3-inch  stuff 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


51 


was  placed  in  middle  of  rear  section  to  give  additional  support 
to  roof  and  to  give  a  stud  for  middle  partition;  see  Fig  3. 

East  and  west  sides  of  front  section  each  have  one  4-foot  stud 
and  two  window  straps  about  4  feet  7  inches  long;  see  Fig.  6. 
Straps  for  monitor  top  windows  are  about  4  feet  10  inches  long 
and  are  placed  between  middle  studs,  as  shown  above  front  roof  in 
Fig.  9. 

Fig.  6  shows  frame  of  east  side  ready  to  board  in. 

Fig.  7  shows  west  side  of  same  stage  of  frame. 

Fig.  8  is  view  after  beginning  to  board  in.    Kear  wall  is  put  on 


DE.    P.    T.    WOODS'   IMPEOVED    OPEX-AIE    POT'LTKY    IIOT^S^E. 

Fig.  6. — View  of  east  side  of  frame  when  ready  to  board  in.  Center 
support  for  roof  and  stud  for  partition  are  clearly  shown.  (Photo  by 
Dr.  Woods.) 


up  and  down.  Partial  partition  in  middle  is  boarded  horizontally. 
This  partition  extends  only  9  feet  front  from  rear  wall. 

Fig.  9  is  view  of  south  front  when  nearly  boarded  in.  The  front 
roof  is  complete  and  covered  with  Amatite  roofing.  AVindow  straps 
in  the  monitor  top  are  shown  in  position. 

Fig.  10  is  view  of  east  and  north  ends  before  putting  on  roofing; 
location  of  door  and  window  is  shown  by  openings. 


52 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


Fifj,  11  shows  soutli  front  and  west  side  fmislied  and  ready  for 
paintinu^.  Jt  will  be  noted  that  the  windows  are  bolted  on  to  outside 
of  biiildinf;-,  eiiiht  tire  bolts  with  steel  washers  are  used  I'or  eaeli 
window,  nuts  are  inside  of  house.  One-quarter-inch  mesh  wire 
netting  covers  the  open  front  for  a  space  of  3  feet  high  by  width  of 
house.  This  space  is  always  open.  There  is  no  partition  of  any 
kind  between  the  front  and  rear  sections  of  house  and  no  curtains  of 
any  kind  are  used. 

Fig.  12  shows  south  front  and  east  side  of  completed  building, 


.^ 

i 

i 

W'  ■ 

^^^ 

1:= 

■  '%.-■' 

/:N    H: 

m 

Tim 

:m 

:.MvJ 

^^- 

^'1'— """^^ 

s^rf^r:^ 

-•r^rS^J 

^  3M|Mp|i|apH 

■■■■Hii^''   . 

^^f^J.. 

.-»•> 

DR.    P.    T.    WOODS'    IMPROVED    OPEN-AIR    POULTRY    HOUSE. 
Pig.  7. — View  of  west  side  of  frame  when  ready  to  board  in.  (Photo  by 

Dr.  Woods.) 


ready  for  painting.  The  door  was  painted  to  make  it  show  ui") 
well  and  to  prevent  warping.  Door  has  two  l()-ineh  con-ugated 
''T"  hinges  and  a  hinged  hasp,  staple  and  a  padlock. 

Xo  droppings  boards  were  used  in  this  building.  Floor  was  filled 
in  with  sand  to  level  of  bottom  of  sills.  Roosts  were  placed  rear  of  the 
house  2  feet  above  the  top  of  sills,  four  on  each  side  of  the  three- 
(piarters  middle  partition  of  rear  of  liouse.  Xests  made  of  cover- 
ing board  stock  were  hung  on  walls  of  house  in  front  of  roosts. 
These  were  made  14x14x12,  Avith  sloping  roof  and  an  alighting 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


53 


shelf.  Bottom  part  of  south  front  is  boarded  up  to  edge  of  wire 
netting.  At  each  end  of  front  a  poultry  hole  (to  be  covered  with  a- 
slide)  will  be  cut  and  a  cleated  incline  furnished  for  fowls  to 
walk  up  on.  House  as  shown  can  be  built  for  $100  and  given  a 
good  coat  of  paint. 
Materials  Required. 
Spruce. 

4:  sills  4x6  inches,  20  feet  long. 

1  sill  4x4  inches,  20  feet  Ion  a-. 


DR.    P.    T.    WOODS'   IMPROVED    OPEN-ATR    POULTRY   HOUSE. 

Fi^.  8. — Beginning  to  board  in.  North  Carolina  hard  pine  '* roofers/' 
"^-in.  matched  stock,  put  on  up  and  down  for  outside^  were  used  for 
boarding  in.  About  1,300  sq.  ft.  of  16  ft.  boards  were  used.  Illustration 
shows  about  half  of  rear  wall  in  place  and  boy  at  work  on  the  middle 
partition,  which  divides  rear  section  for  about  9  ft.  from  rear  wall. 
View  shows  west  side  and  north  end  of  building.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 

4  plates  2x3  inches,  20  feet  long. 

8  rafters  2x4  inches,  14  feet  long. 

8  rafters  2x4  inches,  8I/2  feet  long. 

8  roosts  2x3  inches,  10  feet  long. 

6  pieces  2x3  in  dies,  15  feet  long  to  cut  for  studs. 

3  pieces  2x3  inches,  16  feet  long  to  cut  for  studs. 


54 


OPEX-ATR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


6  pieces  2x3  inelies,  1'^  feet  long  to  cut  for  studs  and  straps. 
Cedar. 

10  cedar  G-incli  i)osts,  8  feet  long  to  cut  for  foundation 
Boards. 

1,300  square  feet  liard  pine  matched  roofers. 
200  runnijig  feet  4-inch  pine  iinish  boards. 
^yindows. 

7  six-light  8x1 2-inch   pane  half  sasli. 
.')(j  tire  l)()lts  -yssi-iiuh.  2'_-inihcs  Ioiilj-  to  fasten  on  sa^^li. 


DR.    P.    T.    WOODS'    IMPKOVED    OPEN-AIR    POULTRY    HOUSP:. 

Fig.  9. — View  of  south  front  of  building  when  nearly  boarded  in.  Rear 
roof  is  not  finished.  Front  roof  is  complete  and  covered  with  Ainatite 
roofing.  Straps  of  2x3  in.  stuff  which  go  below  monitor-top  windows  are 
shown  in  place.  Height  of  monitor-top  above  front  roof  is  i?  ft.  2  in. 
(Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


56  steel  washers  for  same  to  fit  under  nut. 
Wire  Front. 

20  running  feet  i/j.-incli  S(piare  mcsli  galvanized  wire  netting  36 
inches  wide. 

2  pounds  galvanized  wire  staples  for  sanu\ 
Hardware. 

30  pounds  8d  cut  nails;  10  pounds  lOd  cut  nails;   10  pounds 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


55 


30d  spikes;  1  pair  10-incli  corrugated  iron  "T'  hinges  and  screws 
for  same;  1  box  li/)-incli  screws  I'or  cleats  on  doors;  hasp,  staple 
and  padlock;  two  gallons  of  read}^  mixed  "outside"  paint,  any 
good  covering  color. 

In  the  following  chapter  are  given  plans  for  this  house  when 
built  of  common  boards  put  on  horizontally  and  intended  to  be 
covered  by  shingles  or  some  good  roofing.  Detail  of  partition  is 
shown  in  Fig.  19,  Chapter  YI. 

Here  are  a  few  more  comments  on  the  Woods'  open-air  house : 
H.  liinghouse,  Clackamas,  Ore.,  says:    ''Dr.  P.  T.  Woods'  fresh- 


DTf.  P.  T.  WOODS'  TMPl.;n\  i:i»  01  MIX- AIR  POrLTEY  HOPSE.^ 

Fig.  10. — View  of  cast  and  north  end  before  putting  on  roofing.     Opening 

shown  for  door  and  window.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


air  house  is  by  far  the  Ix'st  plan  I  have  ever  seen  for  tlie  middle 
and  eastern  states,  where  they  have  cold  winters,  and  very  hot 
nights  in  summer,  and  it  is  equally  good  for  this  coast.  The  roosts 
are  in  the  rear,  where  the  fowls  are  well  back  from  the  open  front, 
and  during  the  hot  weather  the  ventilation  through  the  open 
windows"  (in  tlie  monitor  top)  "makes  the  roosting  section  quite 
comfoi-table.  The  windows  in  top,  together  with  the  large  window 
opposite  the  door,  furnish  plenty  of  light  and  allow  the  sun  to 


56 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


sliine  in  roar  ])ait  of  liouse.  T  can  tliink  of  nothin<^  wliicli  would 
add  to  the  value,  com  fort  and  convenience  of  this,  the  very  latest 
and  best  i)hin  yet  offered.  It  would  serve  admirably  as  a  con- 
tinuous house.  *  *  *  These  houses  are  no  experiment.  They 
have  been  thoroughly  tested  alongside  of  curtain-front  and  closed 
houses  by  a  large  numljer  of  our  leading  breeders  and  most  of 
the  agricultural  experiment  stations  and  have  proved  tlieir  worth 
by  the  egg  yi^'ld,  better  fertility  and  general  healtli  of  the  flocks." 


DE.  P.  T.  WOODS'  IMPROVED  OPEX-ATR  POULTEY  HOUSE. 
Fig.  11. — Front  view  of  completed  house,  showing  south  front  and  west 
side  ready  for  painting.  Holes  are  to  Le  cut  in  boarded  part  of  each  side 
of  front  end  for  jioultry  doors.  Wire  front  is  shown  in  place.  Owing  to 
rapid  development  of  the  "White  Eordc  chicks  it  was  necessary  to  move 
them  into  this  house  before  it  Avas  finishe<l.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


Sidney  S.  ^lorris,  Berwyn,  Pa.,  says :  "I  consider  a  liouse  of 
this  type  perfect  and  shall  never  build  any  other  kind.'^ 

Frank  W.  Floyd,  Birmingham,  Mich.,  built  a  numlxir  of  Woods' 
houses,  set  them  up  on  posts,  made  rat  proof  with  inverted  metal 
pars  on  top  of  posts,  provided  double  board  floors  for  houses  and 
likes  this  style  of  building  very  much.  lie  has  also  built  a  long 
house  of  same  type. 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


57 


Ealpli  E.  Woods,  Slielton,  Xcl).,  built  small  colony  house  of 
this  type  and  reported  very  satisfactory  results. 

George  (icily,  Nokomis,  111.,  ic[)<)itc(l  for  a  lOxlG-foot  Woods 
house,  winter  of  15)01),  fowls  went  tluou^i;h  severe  blizzard  in  excel- 
lent condition.  He  says:  "In  it  1  housed  17  White  Plymouth 
liocks  through  the  winter  without  a   frozen  comb  or  a  cold   of 


DE.  P.  T.  WOODS'  TMPEOVED  OPEN-ATE  POULTRY  HOUSE. 
Eig.    12. — View    showings    east    side    and    south    front    before    painting. 
"Door  only  is  painted.     Owing  to  press  of  other  work  this  house  did  not 
j^et  painted  in  time  to  show  a  picture  of  it  in  this  ))Ook.     (Photo  ^)y  Dr. 
"Woods.) 


any  kind.  The  ])ullets  were  late  hatched,  l)ut  they  started  laying  in 
December  and  kept  it  up  right  through  the  cold  weather.  The 
h.nise  is  in  a  very  exposed  position,  but  that  does  not  seem  to 
handicap  it- any,  so  we  have  decided  that  it  is  about  the  correct 
tiling  in  poultry  houses^." 


58 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


Building   a   Woods'   house,    10x16    ft.,   portable   colony  typo.      Wozclma 
Farms  Producing  Co.,  Silver  Lake,  Mass.     (Photo  by  John  E.  Zoller.) 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Another  Plan  for  Dr.  Woods'  House 

HE  AETICLE  and  plans  in  this  chapter  are  from 
the  June,  1911,  American  Foidtnj  Journal.  This 
is  the  same  house  as  descrihed  and  illustrated  in 
Chapter  V  except  that  it  is  planned  and  framed 
for  horizontal  hoarding  and  the  use  of  cheap  huild- 
ing  material  to  he  covered  with  either  roofing  fahric 
or  shingles.  U.  1\.  Fishel  gave  this  house  his  endorsement  in  his 
catalogue  for  1911  and  published  the  plans  and  article  in  it.  Here 
they  are : 

In  the  few  years  that  it  has  been  before  the  public  the  Woods' 
Open-Front  Poultry  House  has  made  many  friends.  It  has  been 
successfully  used  in  bleak  and  cold  sections  of  Canada  and  our 
own  northern  states  and  has  given  equally  good  results  in  the 
warmer  climate  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  It  has  been 
built  in  many  sizes,  both  as  a  colony  house  and  as  a  long  or 
*^continuous"  poultry  building.  We  do  not  claim  that  it  is  better 
than  the  several  other  good  types  of  "fresh-air"  houses.  It  is  a 
good,  practical  poultry  house  and  one  that  is  adaptable  to  a  wide 
range  of  locations  and  climatic  conditions. 

Open-front  poultry  houses  have  won  their  popularity  on  sound, 
practical  merit  and  have  come  to  stay.  Poultry  keepers  who  have 
once  used  a  good  open-front  or  "fresh-air''  house  and  given  it  a 
fair  trial,  would  not  return  to  the  old-fashioned  closed  building 
for  their  flocks.  Even  the  large  combed  Minorcas  and  Leghorns 
have  been  found  to  do  better  in  an  open-front  house  than  in  a 
closed  one.  The  size  or  style  of  the  house  does  not  matter  so 
niiich  provided  the  front  is  kept  always  open  and  the  pens  are 
deep  enough  to  have  the  roosts  well  back  from  the  opening. 

Some  of  the  advantages  claimed  for  the  open-front  house  are: 

The  front  being  always  open  there  is  no  ventilation  to  worry 
about. 

Pure  fresh  breathing  air  for  the  fowls  both  day  and  night. 

Freedom  from  frost  and  dampness.  Xot  an  uncomfortable  cold 
liouse,  because  air  is  dry  and  pure. 

Xone  of  the  penetrating  cliill  common  to  closed  houses  in  cold 
weather. 


60 


OPEX-AIR  POUT/rRV  TIOl'SKS 


Comfortable  at  all  times  and  all  seasons  in  nil  locnlions. 
Xo  breatliing  over  and  over  aaain  of  bad,  J'oul,  dead  air. 
Cool  in  summer  and  warmer  and  more  comfortable  than  a  cmsed 
nonse  in  wint(M'. 


H "         " 

I  ...                  JL.                   ■   ■ 

1                             HOOST^ 

J^OOSTS                             « 

i 

\ 
li 

1 
1 

OPEN    FRONT              ^ 

> 

H 

o 

73  ev  /o'x^o'                T 

b 

!  ^^'  ^' 

OPEN    FRONT 
■ ■ 1 

rrmr 


4^ 


/  o 


SCALB 
Fig.  13.— Dr.  P.  T.  Woods'  improved 


ng.  xo. — ij[.  X.  X.  vvuutiN  jiiii.xuM-u  oiHMi-front  i)Oultry  houso,  riround 
plan  drawn  to  scale.  A  strip  of  pai)er  nuirkod  to  corrospoiid  Avith  scale 
and  used  on  jdan  will  give  dimensions  in  feet.  W,  W  are  windows.  D 
is  door.     Black  squares  show  position  of  studs  on  sills. 

Better  health  for  the  flocks  at  all  times. 

Better  egg  yield,  witli  less  tendency  to  be  affected  by  weather 
changes. 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


61 


Better  fertilit}^  and  Letter  chicks  from  the  eggs. 

Better  returns  for  the  food  and  care  given  tlie  flock. 

Economical  to  buikl,  easy  to  nse  and  in  every  way  practical  and 
satisfactory. 

The  Woods'  improved  open-front  poultry  house  differs  con- 
siderably from  the  plans  first  published  and  is  a  much  larger 
liouse.  In  essentials  it  is  similar  to  the  first  semi-monitor-top  open- 
air  house.  Features  that  experience  has  proved  to  be  non-essentials 
liave  been  eliminated.  The  plans  here  given  are  for  a  colony  house 
for  a  large  flock  on  a  practical  plant.  By  keeping  the  proportions 
similar  the  house  can  be  built  as  a  smaller  colony  building  or  as 
a  continuous  house.    It  has  been  successfully  used  as  a  long  house 


nrr 


t    s 


7     s 


SCALE 

Fig.  14. — Dr.  P.  T.  Woods '  improved  open-front  poultry  house.  East 
elevation  plan  of  timbers  showing  posts,  sills,  plates  and  rafters.  Black 
squares  are  plates.  W  is  window.  D  is  door.  Use  scale  on  this  i)lan 
for  Fig.  15  also. 


20x400  feet,  with  pens  20x-20  feet;  as  a  small  colony  house  8x12 
feet,  8x1-1:  feet  and  10x16  feet.  The  depth  of  modifications  of 
this  house  plan  should  not  be  made  less  than  12  feet  for  best 
results. 

The  large  colony  house,  for  which  plans  are  presented  herewith, 
is  20  feet  wide  by  20  feet  deep,  4I/2  feet  high  in  front  of  low  front 
section  and  G  feet  high  at  rear  of  same ;  this  front  section  is  8  feet 
deep;  rear  section  is  12  feet  deep  and  9  feet  high  in  front  and 
5VL>  feet  high  in  rear.     This  gives  a  building  with  plenty  of  head 


62 


OPEX-AIR  rOULTRY  HOUSES 


room  whore  needed,  ^reasiirement?  are  from  .orronnd  level.  The 
house  will  aecomniodate  150  layers  or  breeders  and  they  will  divide 
up  0.  K.  on  the  roosts. 

Fig.  13  shows  ground  plan.  It  will  be  noted  by  compass  that 
the  house  faces  a  little  east  of  south.  This  will  prove  best  in  most 
locations.  The  black  squares  on  ground  plan  show  position  of  the 
studs.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  house  is  partly  divided  by  a  parti- 
tion from  front  to  back.  This  partition  is  solid  matched  boards 
from  floor  to  roof  from  the  back  wall  to  within  9  feet  6  inches 
of  the  inner  edge  of  front  sill.  This  divides  roosting  section  of 
house  and  affords  better  protection  for  the  roosting  fowls  in  very 
windy  weather.  This  solid  partition  has  not  been  found  necessary 
in  small  houses,  l)ut  with  an  open  front  20  feet  wide  it  proved 
effective  in  stopping  strong  air  currents  about  the  roosts  when 


Fi^.  15. — Dr.  P.  T.  Woods'  improved  opon-alr  poultry  house.  West  ele- 
vation plan  of  timl)ers  showing  posts,  sills  and  rafters.  Black  squares 
are  plates,  W,  W,  AV  are  windows.     Scale  on  Fig.  ]4. 


both  windows  and  doors  were  open  as  well  as  the  front.  The  bal- 
ance of  the  partition  is  only  18  inches  high  and  serves  to  prevent 
interference  of  males.  No  wire  is  used  above  this  low  partition, 
the  fo\\'is'? having  access  to  the  whole  house.  Four  roosts,  each  10 
fVet  long, -tire  used  on  each  side  of  full  partition  at  rear  of  house. 
These  are  placed  2VL>  feet  above  the  floor  and  14  inches  apart,  center 
to  center.  Two  by  3-inch  stuff,  with  edges  slightly  rounded  and 
placed  2-inch"side  up,  is  used  for  roosts.  Xo  dropping  boards  are 
used. 

P'ig.  14  shows  east  side  elevation  plan  of  posts  and  timbers.     Fig. 
15  shows  west  side  elevation  of  same.     Sills  rest  on  posts  6  inches 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


63 


above  ground  level.  Posts  are  set  3  feet  in  ground.  If  desired  tlie 
sills  may  be  set  on  a  concrete  or  stone  foundation.  Black  squares 
in  these  elevation  plans  are  the  plates.  Plans  show  position  of 
sills,  studding,  plates,  rafters,  door  (D)  and  windows  (W,  W). 
A  strip  of  paper  nuirked  to  correspond  with  the  scale  will  give 
dimensions  in  feet. 

Fig  16  shows  elevation  diagram  of  complete  building.  Xote 
that  six-light  half-sash  are  used  for  windows.  The  open  front  is 
covered  only  with  i/4-inch  square  mesh  galvanized  steel  wire  net- 
ting. If  a  continuous  house  is  to  be  built  the  colony  house  serves 
as  plan  for  one  pen ;  solid  partitions  every  20  feet.  "Wire  front  in 
continuous  house  should  be  on  frame  and  removable  to  facilitate 


Fig.  16. — Elevation  diagram  of  eompletea  building — Dr.  P.  T.  Woods" 
opon-front  poultry  house.  Front  is  always  open,  closed  in  only  by 
galvanized  wire  netting,  one-fourth  inch  square  mesh.  No  curtains  used 
in  any  part  of  house.  Windows  kept  closed  in  winter  and  all  wide  open 
in  summer. 


cleaning  liouse.    Xo  curtains  are  used  in  any 
Material  Ueq u ired. 
20  slioit  posts. 

4  pieces  4x6,  20  feet  long,  for  sills. 

1  piece  4x4,  20  feet  long,  for  middle  sill. 

5  pieces  2x3,  20  feet  long,  for  plates. 

14  pieces  2x3,  2V2  feet  long,  for  window  fi 

1  piece  2x3,  3  feet  long,  for  door  frame. 

7  pieces  2x3,  3  feet  long,  for  front  studs. 
7  pieces  2x3,  4  feet  long,  for  rear  studs. 
10  pieces  2x3,  7I/2  ^t^^t  long,  for  studs. 

2  pieces  2x3,  5  feet  long,  for  studs. 


part  of  house. 


A. 


# 


ame. 


0 


64 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  65 

3  pieces  2x3,  6  feet  long,  for  studs. 

3  pieces,  2x3,  7  feet  long,  for  studs. 

3  pieces  2x3,  4%  feet  long,  for  studs. 

2  pieces  2x3,  4  feet  long,  for  studs. 

8  pieces  2x3,  8^  feet  long,  for  rafters. 

8  pieces  2x3,  10  feet  long,  for  roosts. 

8  pieces  2x4,  14  feet  long,  for  rear  rafters. 

1,100  square  feet  lumber  for  sides,  roof  and  partition. 

7  six-light,  half-sash  for  windows. 

20  running  feet  of  i/4-inch  square  mesh  netting,  30  inches  wide. 

1,000  square  feet  roofing  fabric  for  sides  and  roof. 

Nails,  hinges,  screws,  etc. 

Windows  in  semi-monitor  top  should  be  put  on  with  hinges  at 
iop  from  outside  and  made  to  open  outward.  They  are  run  wide 
open  or  taken  off  altogether  in  summer.  It  is  a  good  plan  to 
provide  an  inner  wire  netting  door  for  use  wdien  house  door  is 
left  open. 

This  house  may  be  built  with  a  double  wood  floor,  a  cement  floor 
or  with  a  floor  of  earth  or  sand.  If  earth  or  sand  is  used,  fill  in 
to  level  of  to])  of  sills.  If  cement  floor  is  used  bring  it  to  bottom 
of  s'ills  and  fill  to  top  of  sills  with  clean  sand.  Beach  sand  is 
^excellent. 


es 


OPEX-AIR  rOULTRY  HOUSES 


Building  a  portable  colony  tyjie  Woods'  oi-en-air  poultry  house,  10x16  ft., 
Wozelma  rarms  Producing  Company,  Silver  Lake,  Mass. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Gillette  Open-Air  Poultry  House 

iXOTHER  MODEEX  poultry  house  which  has  be- 
come popular  is  the  Gillette  Open-air  House,  de- 
signed and  built  by  George  K.  Gillette,  manager  of 
Sugar  Brook  Farm  Company,  Central  Village, 
Conn.  Poultry  houses  of  this  type  are  used  on  the 
•lOO-acre  plant  of  the  company  for  housing  all  breed- 
ing and  laying  stock. 

Plans  for  this  house  were  first  published  in  American  Poultry 
Journal  for  March,  1911.  In  the  fall  of  1911,  Connecticut  Agri- 
cultural College  and  Experiment  Station  built  a  model  poultry 
plant  of  iifty  12x12  feet  Gillette  open-air  houses  for  the  purpose 
of  housing  the  North  American  International  Egg  Laying  Com- 
petition, each  house  being  divided  into  two  pens,  five  birds  in  a 
pen. 

Sugar  Brook  Farm  ]ias  found  this  house  so  satisfactory  in  opera- 
tion and  so  attractive  in  appearance,  as  well  as  economical  of  con- 
Btruction,  that  all  new  breeding  and  laying  houses  are  to  be  built 
after  this  pattern,  either  as  separate  colony  houses  or  as  a  long  or 
continuous  house,  using  plans  for  colony  building  as  one  section 
of  the  long  house. 

The  Gillette  open-air  house  is  20x20  feet  ground  measurement, 
6-foot  high  walls  back  and  front  and  9  feet  high  at  the  peak.  ( See 
plans.)  As  is  shown  in  "Fig.  17,  Side  Elevation,"  the  roof  pro- 
jects about  1  foot  beyond  the  front  and  back  w^alls,  making  eaves 
which  carry  the  drip  from  rain  or  snow  w^ell  out  from  the  build- 
ing. There  is  a  ventilating  door  for  summer  use  in  each  side  wall' 
near  apex.  This  door  is  2  feet  square  (see  "a"  in  plan),  and  in 
hot  weather  both  east  and  west  doors  are  kept  open,  making  the 
building  cool  and  comfortable.  There  is  also  a  window  ("b")  in 
each  side  wall  about  4  feet  from  the  floor,  made  of  two  half  sash, 
each  containing  six  8xl2-inch  lights.  These  sash  are  hinged  at  the 
top. 

"Fig.  18,  Front  Elevation,''  shows  open-front  (covered  only 
with  wire  netting),  location  of  doors,  poultry  slides,  etc;  "c,  c'* 
are  the  poultry  slides,  each  1  foot  wide  by  18  inclies  high,  located 
at  each  front  corner  for  convenience.  In  some  of  the  houses  these 

67 


68 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


slides  are  in  east  and  west  ends  near  the  front.  Tlie  open-front 
is  3Vl>x9  feet  and  is  never  ■wholly  closed.  Balance  of  front,  except 
doors,  is  boarded.  There  is  a  door  2i/>  feet  wide  on  either  side  of 
open  front.  Each  has  a  solid  matched  board  door  which  opens 
in,  and  another  door  (top  half  wire  netting  and  bottom  half  cot- 
ton cloth)  wliich  swings  ont.  The  solid  door  is  kept  open  all  day 
in  winter,  except  in  extremely  cold  storms.  In  snmmer  the  solid 
door  is  kept  open  all  the  time.  The  screen  door  of  wire  and  clotli 
is  usod  when  solid  door  is  open  and  it  is  desired  to  confine  the 


S/ns: 


EL£VATI0A/ 


Xo' 


Fig.  17.     Side  elevation  Gillette  open-air  poultry  house;  *'a"  is  2  feet 


square,  ventilating?  door  for  warm  weather  use; 
two  half  sash  each,  six  8xl2-inch  lights. 


b"  is  glass  window, 


fowls  to  the  house,  or  in  very  windy  weather  when  it  is  not  con- 
sidered desirable  to  have  front  so  wide  open,  ''d,  d"  are  remov- 
able boards  that  arc  used  to  keep  litter  and  sand  out  of  the  door- 
way. It  will  be  noted,  in  illustrations  of  this  house  from  photo- 
graphs, that  a  cloth  screen  is  shown  which  slides  up  over  open 
front,  partly  closing  it.  This  cloth  screen  slides  in  a  groove  of 
wooden  cleats  and  is  held  in  place  by  a  wooden  pin.  Detail  of 
curtain  slide  is  shown  in  '^curtain  detail"  in  plan.  It  will  be 
noted  that  curtain  does  not  fit  close  against  front  of  building, 
but  is  some  2  inches  from  it,  leaving  an  air  space  between  cur- 
tain and  front  of  house.  It  has  been  used  but  seldom  in  ex- 
tremely hard  winter  wind  storms  and  has  never  been  wholly 
closed.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  curtain  or  cloth  screen  is 
not  necessary  to  successful  use  of  this  house.  It  will  be  seen  from 
the  plan  that  roof  projects  about  1  foot  beyond  side  walls  of 
building,  which  is  considered  a  desirable  feature. 

"Pig.  11),  Ground  Plan/^  shows  the  square  floor  plan  of  house 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


69 


and  location  of  drop  boards  and  roosts.  There  are  four  roosts 
about  8  inches  above  the  drop  boards  on  each  side  of  middle  parti- 
tion. Drop  boards  are  about  2I/2  f^^t  above  the  floor.  As  shown 
in  the  plan,  there  is  a  solid  matched  board  partition  in  the  middle 
of  each  pen  extending  from  floor  to  roof  and  from  rear  wall  to 
within  6  feet  of  the  open  front  of  the  building.  This  partition 
helps  prevent  interference  of  male  birds  and  also  prevents  all 
drafts  about  the  roosts  even  wdien  the  house  is  run  wide  open  in 
very  windy  weather.  The  flocks  divide  up  nicely  at  night  and  do 
not  show  any  tendency  to  crowd  on  one  side.  The  6  feet  in  front 
of  the  partition  is  always  open.  Houses  are  set  on  a  stone  and 
concrete  foundation.  Sand  on  floors  to  level  of  sills  is  preferred 
to  straw  litter.     ^Ir.  Gillette  furnished  the  followin^r  bill  of  lum- 


& 


CURTAIN  JD£T/\IL 


m 


^--3'--> 


r H 


DOOR 


H 


i^--  -  - 


-  zo' 


Fig.  18.  Front  elevation  and  curtain  detail  Gillette  open-air  poultry 
house.  Wire  front,  3V:.>x9  feet,  always  open;  ''e,  e"  poultry  slides; 
*'d,  d"  movable  boards  to  keep  litter  or  sand  out  of  doorway. 


ber  for  this  house  and  stated  that  the  house  complete,  including  all 

hired   labor  and   stone  and  concrete   foundation,  can  be  built  for 

$1U0. 

Material  Beqnirrd  for  Gillette  House. 

2  pieces  4x4,  12  feet  long,  for  corner  posts. 

5  pieces  2x4,  20  feet  long,  for  j^lates  and  one  collar  beam  for 
center. 

4  pieces  4x6,  20  feet  long,  for  sills. 

4  pieces  2x3,  20  feet  long,  for  roosts. 

4  pieces  2x3,  20  feet  long,  for  girds. 

7  ]ueces  2x4,  12  feet  long,  for  studs. 

22  pieces  2x4,  12  feet  long,  for  rafters. 


70 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


800  feet  good  tlrv  cypres?  lumber,  matched. 

()00  feet  matched  himl)er  for  roof. 

The  sides  of  this  house  are  boarded  up  and  down  and  are 
painted.  Xo  paper  or  shingles  are  used  on  sides.  Eoof  is  covered 
with  roofing  fabric. 

"Fig.  20,"  is  from  a  photo  taken  on  January  26,  1911,  a  cold, 
clondv  day  with  frequent  showers  during  the  latter  part.  Tliis 
view  shows  the  south  front  and  east  end  of  building  with  a  partial 


TiOO^T^ 

X)^OA    SOARJO 

0 

k 

rig.  3.  ^ 

GROUA/X) 

1 

»^ 

1 

Fig.   19.     Ground    i>laii    showing   dimensions    of   tloor,   middle    ]iartilion 
and  location  of  roosts  and  drop  boards,  Gillette  open-air  poultry  house. 

view  of  the  interior.  A  part  of  the  flock  are  enjoying  the  scratch- 
ing litter  which  is  used  in  sheltered  places  OUTSIDE  of  the  house. 
Mr.  (lillette  ]n-efers  sand  for  the  floors  inside  of  the  house  and 
likes  to  use  litter  outside.  The  Avhole  straw,  containing  tlie  grain 
just  as  harvested,  is  thrown  outside  of  house  and  the  birds  work 
in  it  most  of  the  day. 

"Fig.  21"  is  from  a  photo  taken  on  the  same  day  and  shows  a 
fine  lot  of  sturdy  White  Plymouth  Rock  breeders  enjoying  a  wind- 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


71 


Fig.  20.  From  a  photograph  of  Gillette  open-air  poultry  house.  View 
shows  east  end  aii<I  south  front  and  a  partial  view  of  interior.  Flock 
is  scratching  in  litter  outside  of  house. 


Fig.  21.  "Windbreak  of  corn  stover  used  with  Gillette  houses  at  Sugar 
Brook  Farm,  Central  Village,  Conn.  Fine  outdoor  exercise  for  the 
breeders  in  winter. 


72  OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

break  of  corn  stover  stacked  against  a  wire  fence.  In  this  shel- 
tered i^lace  the  fowls  get  abundant  outdoor  exercise  and  it  helps 
greatly  in  getting  well-fertilized  strong-germed  eggs.  Mr.  Gil- 
lette tells  me  that  he  is  a  great  believer  in  the  benefits  from  this 
sort  of  exercise  and  he  plans  each  fall  to  have  either  a  straw  stack 
or  stover  stack  for  each  houseful  to  work  about.  It  certainly 
beats  working  in  litter  indoors  where  the  fowls  kick  up  a  great 
dust  to  the  injury  of  their  breathing  apparatus.  Tlie  outdoor  lit- 
ter is  washed  by  the  rain,  dried  and  sweetened  by  the  sun  and  so 
kept  sweet.  They  have  but  little  heavy  snow  in  this  part  of  Con- 
necticut and  the  fowls  can  enjoy  the  outdoor  straw  stack  and  lit- 
ter throughout  the  winter.  Although  the  houses  are  not  very  far 
apart  and  there  are  150  breeders  allowed  to  each  house  the  flocks 
do  not  mix  to  any  great  extent,  not  enough  to  cause  any  trouble. 
"Fig.  22"  shows  a  row  of  six  Gillette  houses  on  the  Sugar  Brook 
Farm  range  for  breeding  stock  and  although  taken  in  bad  weather 
the  Ijirds  will  be  seen  at  work  outside  the  houses.  This  open-front 
house  is  a  practical  one  and  appears  to  be  well  adapted  to  free 
range  work  with  poultry  on  a  large  plant.  If  I  were  operating  I 
would  not  bother  with  tb.e  cloth  screen  or  curtain. 


m 


be 


74 


OPEX-AIR  rOULTRY  HOUSES 


Woo<ls'  ojion-air  poultry  liouse.  lOxKJ  ft.,  ])(»rta]jle  c-oluny  type  as  used 
T)v  "Wozelnia  Farms  Producing  Company,  Silver  Lake,  Mass.  (Photo  by 
John  E.  Zeller.) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
H.  H.  Stoddard's  Open-Air  Cage  Roost 

HEX  KEEPIXG  POULTRY  in  a  warm  climate  it 
is  only  a  short  step  from  open-front  housing  to  no 
house  at  all  or  to  simply  a  roofed  shelter.  The 
open-front  house  will  give  excellent  service  where 
the  summers  are  hot  and  the  winters  are  cold  or 
wherever  the  climatic  conditions  and  variations 
are  such  that  a  house  is  needed.  It  has  heen  successfully  used  in 
the  far  north  and  the  far  south,  hut  for  the  south  and  for  tropical 
or  semi-tropical  climates  a  simple  roofed  shelter  or  an  entirely 
open  cage  roost,  depending  on  the  frequency  of  heavy  rains,  is  the 
most  satisfactory  method  of  protecting  roosting  fowls. 

In  most  warm  climates  insect  pests  ahound,  especially  tick-like 
bugs  and  fleas.  In  the  south  where  the  soil  is  rather  sandy,  the 
stick-fast  flea  is  a  most  pestiferous  insect  and  annoys  man  and 
fowl  alike.  It  is  almost  impossi])le  to  keep  free  of  these  insect 
pests  when  ordinary  houses  are  used.  The  fleas  breed  in  shaded 
sandy  places  nnder  buildings  and,  once  they  take  up  their  abode 
there,  moving  or  burning  the  building  is  about  the  only  means  of 
dislodging  them. 

Frequent  moving  of  roosting  quarters  and  construction  that  will 
admit  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air  penetrating  to  all  parts  of  the 
shelter  or  coop  is  the  best  method  of  protecting  the  fowls  against 
these  insect  pests. 

"Where  rain  storms  are  common  and  the  rainfall  heavy,  some 
sort  of  roofed  shelter  should  be  provided.  All  that  is  necessary  are 
roosts  about  18  inches  above  the  ground,  enclosed  in  wire  netting 
and  a  not  too  high  roof  to  keep  off  the  rain.  See  ''Stoddard's 
Bower,"  Fig.  23. 

H.  H.  Stoddard,  of  Eiviera,  Texas,  has  devised  a  cage  roost 
that  has  proved  most  satisfactorv  poultry  quarters  in  the  warm  dry 
Gulf  coast  section  of  Texas.  These  consist  of  cages,  of  one  inch 
mesh  poultry  netting,  containing  roosts.  These  cages  may  be  built 
any  shape  or  dimensions  desired  or  found  most  convenient.  They 
should  be  made  easily  movable  and  with  as  little  woodwork  as  pos- 
sible. 

The  cage  roost  is  designed  to  provide  entirely  open-air  sleep- 

75 


76 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


ing  quarters,  tliere  is  no  roof,  and  at  the  same  time  to  protect  the 
fowls  from  coyotes,  owls,  and  other  night  marauders. 

Mr.  Stoddard  says  that  the  heat  of  southwest  Texas  is  steady 
and  prolonged  rather  than  excessively  severe.  He  finds  that  cage 
roosts  are  particularly  well  suited  to  the  climatic  conditions.  Long 
heavy  rains  are  not  common.  When  it  does  rain  everything  dries 
quickly  and  looks  the  brighter  and  better  for  it.     Fowls  roosting 


Fi^.  2M. — 11.  [f.  Stoililai'  ~  ■  :  .  ',r"'  idr  poultry  in  tlir  Southwost. 
This  is  simjily  a  roofed  shelter  tor  the  roosts  and  is  surrouuded  by 
hexagon  poultry  wire. 


out  in  heavy  rainfall  (|uickly  dry  out  l)riglit  and  ha})py.     He  con- 
siders the  cage  roost  a  perfect  success. 

Fig.  24  shows  frame  for  a  triangular  cage  roost.  This  frame 
is  to  be  covered  entirely,  sides,  ends,  and  l)ottom,  with  one  inch 
mesh  poultry  netting.  It  should  be  provided  with  a  wire  door  in 
front.  Fig.  '?5  shows  frame  for  a  hexagon  cage  roost,  wliich  can 
easily  be  rolled  from  one  location  to  another.     This  also  is  in- 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


77 


tended  to  be  provided  with  a  door  and  covered  entirely  with  one- 
inch  mesh  poultry  netting. 

All  cages  can  be  made  small  as  compared  to  ordinary  poultry 
houses.  They  need  not  be  over  four  to  six  feet  high.  The  roosts 
need  not  be  over  eighteen  inches  from  the  ground.  The  fowls  are 
shut  out  of  the  cage  in  the  day  time,  as  it  is  only  designed  to  afford 
them  safe  roosting  quarters. 

Nests  elevated  on  posts  or  "stilts"  may  be  placed  al)Out  tlie  poul- 
try runs.  These  nests  should  be  simple,  easily  cleaned,  roofed 
boxes. 

Mr.  Stoddard  recommends  making  these  cage  roosts  in  any  form 
which  may  be  convenient,  triangular,  cylindrical,  square,  or  hex- 
agon.    Writing  about  the  cage  roost,  he  says: 

"These  cage^  can  l^e  moved  and  partly  or  completely  inverted 


H.  H.  STODDAED'S  WIEE  CAGE  EOOST. 
Fig;.  24. — H.  H.  Stoddard's  wire  cage  roost.  This  is  diagram  for  the 
*'A"  or  triangular  oap-e  roost  and  shows  construction  of  frame.  The 
frame  is  to  be  entirely  covered,  top,  sides,  ends  and  bottom,  with  1-inch 
mesh  hexagon  wire  poultry  netting,  A,  A,  are  telephone  wires  to  support 
edge  of  wire  netting,  B,  B,  are  wires  to  sui)port  the  roosts.  C,  C,  are  the 
roosts.     Front  roost  should  be  provided  with  a  wide  door. 

each  day  to  permit  the  sun  to  strike  the  under  side  of  the  perches, 
an  advantage  the  usual  roost  does  not  possess.  There  is  the  very 
minimum  of  woodwork  to  harbor  parasites  or  any  disease  germs. 
"Imagine  the  luxury  of  seeing  rows  of  fowls  clean  and  fresh 
looking  on  their  porches,  with  no  tainted  quarters  and  no  more 
possibility  of  inhaling  the  smallest  quantitv  of  second-hand  air 
than  a  robin  or  blackbird  in  a  tree.     It  is  ideal,     k  soaking  rain 


78  OPEX-AIR  rOULTRY  HOUSES 

seems  to  do  them  good.  It  is  true  that  they  look  bedraggled  and 
sorry  enough  while  it  is  actually  raining,  biit  it  is  wonderful  how 
quickly  they  get  in  full  dress  uniform  after  a  storm,  and  their 
combs,  wattles,  and  plumage  look  as  fresh  and  bright  as  if  pre- 
pared witli  care  for  the  e\hil)ition  coop.  I  have  found  that  heavy 
and  prolonged  rain  does  not  check  laying  in  the  least.  The  average 
number  of  eggs  during  a  rainy  sj^ell  and  several  days  following, 
was  exactly  the  same  as  before  it,  although  we  had  3i/>  inches  of 
rain  in  36  hours.  Eain  on  the  birds  is  natural.  The  skin  and 
feathers  get  into  a  better  condition  and  look  fresher  and  more 
lustrous,  just  like  the  wild  birds.  The  oil  gland  secretes  normally 
and  copiously  and  the  birds  use  it  more  and  make  their  toilet  with 


H.  H.  STODDAED'S  WIEE  CAGE  BOOST. 
Fig.  2o.^Diagram  showing  frame  for  a  hexagon  shaped  Stoddard  cage 
roost.     This  frame  is  to   he   entirely   covered   with   1-inch   mesh  poultry 
netting  and  to  be  provided  with  a  wide  door  in  front. 

evident  enjoyment  and  good  results,  whereas,  as  mv  readers  have 
noticed,  when  kept  under  a  roof,  this  gland  is  often  partially  or 
completely  atrophied  and  useless,  its  contents  being  solidly  caked, 
the  skin  dry  and  hai*sh  and  the  plumage  dull.  Xature  knows 
what  she  is  about.  You  cannot  thwart  her  with  impunity.  Fowls 
that  are  under  a  roof  all  night  when  it  rains  never  look  as  clean 
and  healthy  and  never  move  about  the  next  day  with  the  vigor 
and  sprightliness  of  the  'back  to  nature'  birds." 

Xo  house  cleaning  or  whitewashing  is  necessary  where  cage 
roosts  are  used.  AVhere  heavy  rains  occur  frequently  during  the 
"wet  season"  I  should  prefer  a  roost  that  has  a  roof  to  afford  some 
protection  from  the  rain.     It  may  not  be  absolutely  necessary,  but 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES  79 

it  is  not  contrary  to  nature.  The  fowls  are  confined  in  the  cage 
roost  and  they  cannot  get  ont  to  seek  shelter  when  heavy  rains 
come.  If  they  were  free  to  do  as  they  chose,  they  would  in  all 
probability  seek  a  sheltered  roost  in  a  thick  foliaged  tree  on  the 
opproach  of  a  heavy  rain  storm.  Occasional  heavy  rains  would  do 
no  harm  but  I  should  not  want  to  expose  my  flocks  to  frequent 
successive  heavy  rain  storms.  It  is  possible  to  have  too  much  of  a 
good  thing. 


SQ 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


Portable  Tolman  pattern  open-front  hon^e,  6  ft.  -uiile  hy  10  ft.  deep, 
built  on  skids.  Used  for  small  chicks  by  Wozelma  Farms  Producing  Com- 
pany, Silver  Lake,  Mass.     (Photo  by  John  E.  Zeller.) 


^?>= 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Tolman  House 

riE   TOLMAX   Fresh-Air   House  was  invented  and 
promoted   by   Josepl.   Tol.uan,  of  Kocl^land     M .f 
one  of  the  leading  pioneers  m  the  det Ipme^  t  or 
open-front  poultry  hous.s.     This  house  hasTdouble 
?nd  tiri,-7'V''''-\°"«.^'''P*^  °f  r°°^  to  the  souu 
of  the  roosts.  X  ^.  I'^SreT/o.:    t,:^"" ^^ij^^^ 
sions  for  lohnan  houses  are,  sill'measur  m  nt :   8  fee  "  L  bvU 
■eet  deep;  10x16  feet,  and  14x24  feet.    Height  at  rear   Tftf  / 
H,  at  peak  8  feet,  from  sill,  in  front  3./   ill    f  «„  '  '  11   t,  T 
>^er  houses.     The  large  house  has  prop-ortTonateT  iSer'stu^ 
ihe  lolman  house  is  an  excellent  house  and  I  used  two  of  them 

■  ToTmt'f "^  '".  ''""'^^.''^  '^''^^•'  "'"h  satisfacton-  resu I™ 
..  lolman  s  own  story  £i,toIr  in  March,  1<)11,  Amei-icaii  l>o,,  ,■^• 
.urnal   is  interesting,  V-re  it  Is  as  told  hv  hi,i  e  f  ^ 

viti'  e  ite7\U'Tp"iSr''' "'  "rT""""'-^-  '^---  -- 

esults      Then  it  '  '  •'   '"*""^'  ^"'1  I  »et  with  verv  poor 

'  e    hatcl  out  of  mv  in.T?'"'™f  *'"""  ^'"'  "^  to  take'  h^fcl 

-.d,  inl^sstan  tl"  e  reS'°;:;rfthV'"  f'^'^'^^.t'^  '^-'1- 

^ost  of  the  trouble  wa"d,  e  to    f '"r  ''"•"''•  /  '™  ™"^-'"^'^^l  that 

"When  we  stop  to    bin     of  +1,''°";'?"  °^  "^•^'  ''^^'"^1'"-  ^tock. 

nfl  full  of  stak?^  fou      ;,^  ?/    lie  closed  honses.  poorly  ventilated 

•or  poultry  a  doz'en  ■  ar  a^o  wl  t^  u""*'':  "J  poultrvmen  used 
'requenc^•■with  whtb  dl!.  "  '  v,  '''""''^  ""t  be  surprised  at  the 
cholera  etc  l  ^ Wd  •  T  ^'}i  ™"'^-  ^l'>Mlien-a.  tuberculosis, 
breeding  LlhJri™  olosed-bouse  flocks.  Tt  is  a  fact  tha 
resisting  poCthroL^r.,%7''^"''^  '"  "'t-'-'it^'  =""1  ^H^ease- 
it  i->£alnil^Mnt::iL"l^^^^^^^  ^*  "■•^'^*'  «-^* 

severe  cold  wXo^^/nnl  I'l^oii''.  "^"'T^  ""^  "^^"^  •^-'•""  tbe 
nintei  ot  1004  and  100,';.  and  remarkably  good  results 

81 


82 


OPEX-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


•were  obtained.  Perhaps  readers  will  be  interested  to  know  what 
led  me  to  develop  my  iresli-air  poultry  house.  During  the  spring 
of  1903,  Dr.  Prince  T.  Woods  visited  a  number  of  poultry  plants 
in  my  neighborhood,  where  at  that  time  very  unsatisfactory  re- 
sults were  being  obtained.  Post-mortem  examinations  made  on  a 
great  many  birds  of  various  ages  led  him  to  believe  that  an  abun- 
dance of  fresh  air  in  the  poultry  houses  night  and  day  was  what 
was  most  needed  to  put  the  stock  in  better  condition.  Acting  on 
his  advice,  1  took  the  windows  out  of  my  poultry  houses  at  once  and 
ket)t  them  out  until   late  fall.     Seeing  a  marked  change  in   the 


Group  of  large   Tolnian   houses    on    }>lant    of   .Joseph   Tolman,   Eoekland, 
Mass.     (Photo  by  Dr.  Woods.) 


health  and  vigor  of  my  birds,  and  knowing  the  remai'kable  results 
being  obtained  in  the  treatment  of  the  diseases  of  human  beings 
by  treating  them  in  open-air  sleeping  rooms,  I  felt  sure  that  in 
order  to  get  best  results  with  my  breeders  I  needed  to  keep  the 
poultry  house  windows  wide  open  all  winter.  This  was  the  winter 
of  1903  and  1904,  and  now  after  eight  winters  of  open-air  poultry 
housing  I  could  not  be  induced  to  return  to  old-fashioned  closed 
poultry  buildings.    I  am  convinced  that  open-front,  fresh-air  poul- 


FOR  ALL  CLLMATES 


83 


try  buildings  are  the  only  desirable  type  for  the  successful  housing 
of  breeding  and  laying  stock. 

"In  1903-04,  although  the  three  houses  I  used  for  breeders  were 
not  well  adapted  to  such  exposure  to  the  elements  in  severe  winter 
weather,  I  oljtained  fine  results.  The  e^fs;  yield  from  150  Light 
Brahmas  during  the  coldest  months  was  from  50  to  60  per  cent. 
I  was  able  to  hatch  from  55  to  05  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
eggs  placed  in  the  incubators,  and  the  chickens  were  large,  strong 
and  vigorous.  That  spring  (1904)  I  had  a  very  small  death  rate 
among  my  chickens  and  was  greatly  encouraged. 


Tolman  open-air  roost  for  growing  chicks  and  surplus  cockerels,  as  used 
on  Tolman  fresh-air  poultry  plant,  Rockland,  Mass.  (Photo  by  Dr. 
Woods.) 


"The  three  houses  that  I  made  this  test  with  were  20x10  feet, 
with  double  pitch  roof,  side  posts  5  feet,  two  12-light  windows  on 
south  side.  These  were  run  with  windows  wide  open  day  and  night. 
During  a  heavy  snow  storm  the  snow  drifted  into  the  house  so 
that  it  had  to  be  shoveled  out  and  to  overcome  this  I  designed 
tluit  fall  what  is  now  widelv  known  as  the  Tolman  fresh-air  poultry 
house.  While  experimenting,  and  to  get  actual  fresh-air,  open- 
front  houses  quickly  and  at  least  expense,  I  swung  these  20x10- 


84 


OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 


foot  houses  around  willi  the  lO-foot  end  facing  south,  })ut  back 
the  windows  and  tore  out  the  south  end  of  tlie  buiUling,  covering 
the  opening  with  wire  only,  and  placed  the  roosts  in  the  north  end 
of  tlie  buihling.  These  radical  open-front  houses  gave  irood  re- 
sults, much  better  than  I  had  ever  had  in  closed  houses,  but  were 
not  as  comfortable  in  severe  weather  as  the  Tolman  house.  See 
illustration  showing  house  as  operated  with  end  torn  out;  these 
buildings  were  used  successfully  for  several  winters. 

^'The  improved  Tolman  house  which  I  have  finally  adopted  as 


Eadieal  fresh-air  methods  employed  on  the  plant  of  Joseph  Tolmnn, 
Eockland,  Mass,  This  is  an  early  type  of  fresh-air  building  successfully 
used  through  several  winters.  It  is  an  ordinary  double-pitch  roof 
building  10  feet  wide  by  20  feet  deep,  with  the  south  end  torn  out  and 
the  opening  closed  only  by  wire  netting.  Koosts  are  in  the  north  end. 
This  building  proved  better  for  the  fowls  than  the  closed  house. 


the  standard  type  of  poultry  building  is  so  well  known  now  that 
it  does  not  need  a  full  description  here.  These  houses  are  hip- 
roofed  with  the  long  reach  of  roof  to  the  south  and  are  built  10  to 
14  feet  wide  and  from  10  to  24:  feet  deep.  The  front  is  always 
open  and  covered  only  with  wire  netting.  Xo  curtains  are  used. 
See  illustration  from  photograjdis  of  one  of  my  first  improved  pat- 
tern Tolman  houses.  I  believe  that  in  fresh-air  houses  of  this  type 
the  fowls  are  much  more  comfortable  than  in  buildings  of  other 
types,  and  they  are  protected  at  all  times  from  the  ill  effects  of 
weather  changes.    Fowls  housed  in  these  open- front  houses  show 


FOR  ALL  CLIMATES 


85 


practically  no  clieck  in  egg  yield,  no  matter  how  severe  the  winter 
weather  changes  may  be. 

"The  fresh-air  house  is  always  dry  and  comfortable.  In  closed 
poultry  buildings  in  severe  cold  weather  moisture  collects  on  the 
walls  which  makes  the  house  very  uncomfortable.  The  dampness 
and  lack  of  fresh  air  in  a  closed  house,  particularly  the  foul  night 
air  that  is  breathed  over  and  over  again,  causes  fowls  to  contract 
colds  which  develop  into  roup  or  other  contagious  diseases.  Damp- 
ness and  bad  air  also  lead  to  frosted  combs  and  wattles.  These 
conditions  of  frost,  dampness  and  insuflicient  fresh  air  are  elimi- 
nated in  my  fresh-air  type  of  poultry  houses. 

'Tn  a  fresh-air  house  the  fowls  have  an  abundance  of  pure,  fresh 


Modern  Tolmaii  house  of  the  improved  open-front  or  fresh-air  type  as 
used  by  Joseph  Tolman,  Eockland,  Mass. 


breathing  air  at  all  times,  direct  from  outdoors,  night  and  day. 
This  insures  healthy  fowls  and  freedom  from  infectious  ailments 
common  to  flocks  housed  in  closed  buildings.  A  house  10x16  feet 
will  accommodate  40  breeders  and  one  14x24  feet  will  house  com- 
fortably 100  breeders.  This  type  of  building  is  comfortable  for 
the  fowls  at  all  seasons  of  the  year  and  the  air  in  them  is  always 
alive  and  fresh,  never  dead  and  foul  as  it  often  is  in  a  closed 
building.  The  dry,  live  air  in  the  open-front  house  is  invigorating 
and  the  fowls  enjoy  their  quarters  both  night  and  day.    In  houses 


86  OPEN-AIR  POULTRY  HOUSES 

of  the  fresh-air  type  yon  never  ^^et  the  deadly  cliill  tliat  is  common 
to  a  closed  house  in  winter.  Floor  and  litter  keep  dry  longer  and 
keep  sweeter  than  in  closed  houses.  Though  the  front  is  alwavs 
open,  the  house  is  not  a  cold  one  in  winter  and  is  much  warmer 
than  a  shed-roofed  huilding. 

"As  to  results  in  open-air  houses  I  do  not  believe  that  they  can 
l^e  duplicated  in  buildings  of  the  closed  type.  Reports  from  all 
over  the  country  for  several  years  past  from  nsers  of  open-front 
poultry  buildings  show  better  health  of  the  breeding  stock,  better 
e^g  yield,  better  fertility,  and  l)etter  chicks  from  the  eggs  used  for 
hatciiing.  I  have  had  remarkable  success  and  attribute  it  chiefly 
to  open-air  housing  of  both  breeding  and  growing  stock.  Six- 
hundred  White  Plymouth  Rocks  were  wintered  from  Octol)er  1  to 
^larch  1  with  the  loss  of  only  six  birds,  four  of  these  l^eing  crop- 
bound  from  eating  straw  litter.  These  birds  gave  a  60  per  cent  egg 
yield  in  December  and  the  fertility  ranged  from  75  to  85  per  cent, 
with  excellent  hatches. 

"Eight  years  ago,  after  eight  years  of  experience  with  ])oultiy 
in  closed  buildings,  I  was  nearly  down  and  out.  Adopting  fresh- 
air  methods  put  me  on  my  feet  again  and  enabled  me  to  make  a 
success  of  my  poultry  keeping.  Xow.  after  eight  winters  of  fresb- 
air  housing  of  breeding  and  laying  stock  and  fresh-air  rearing  for 
the  young  flocks  I  am  planning  to  build  more  open-front  buildings 
and  a  large  fresh-air  brooding  system.  Two  seasons  ago  I  put  in 
a  600-egg  Hall  mammoth  incubator  and  have  shipped  chicks  all 
over  the  country  that  have  made  good  by  developing  husky,  vig- 
orous breeding  stock.  This  season  the  demand  for  day-old  chicks 
has  been  so  great  that  I  have  been  unalde  to  fill  many  orders  and 
am  now  preparing  to  install  another  mammoth  incubator  of  the 
same  make.     Fresh-air  methods  made  this  possible  for  me."' 


D.  H.  HILL  LIBRARY 

North  Carolina  State  Colleee 


